Apparatus for multimodal analysis of sample material

An apparatus for multimodal analysis of sample material, comprising:

• a desorption optics system that subjects sample material disposed on one side of a sample carrier to a first radiation that desorbs the sample material into the a gas phase, with ionization of the desorbed sample material,
• an analyser disposed at a distance from the sample carrier that receives the desorbed and ionized sample material and processes it to spatially resolved molecular image information,
• a transmission reflected light optics system that records light microscopy image information from the sample carrier and sample material in a spatially resolved manner using a second radiation in reflection through the transparent sample carrier, wherein the second radiation is emitted by a light source disposed on a side of the sample carrier facing away from the sample material and designed such that the spatially resolved light microscopy image information is recorded in a substantially shadow-free manner, and
• a computation unit that communicates with the desorption optics system, the analyser and the transmission reflected light optics system, and that associates the spatially resolved molecular image information and the spatially resolved light microscopy image information to give spatially resolved co-registered overall image information,
• wherein a mode of operation of the computation unit and of the transmission reflected light optics system includes recording the spatially resolved light microscopy image information by sequentially scanning a multitude of xy individual image areas on the sample material and computationally conjoining the isolated xy individual image information thusly obtained.

A method of multimodal analysis of sample material, comprising:

• locally exposing the sample material disposed on one side of a sample carrier to a first radiation that desorbs the sample material into a gas phase, with ionization of the locally desorbed sample material,
• receiving and processing the locally desorbed and ionized sample material to generate spatially resolved molecular image information using an analyser disposed at a distance from the sample carrier,
• recording spatially resolved light microscopy image information from the sample carrier and sample material using a second radiation in reflection through the transparent sample carrier, wherein the second radiation is emitted by a light source disposed on a side of the sample carrier facing away from the sample material and configured such that the second radiation, when incident on the sample carrier, does not pass through any optics component through which the first radiation passes when incident on the sample carrier, and
• associating the spatially resolved molecular image information and the spatially resolved light microscopy image information to give spatially resolved co-registered overall image information.

A method of multimodal analysis of sample material, comprising:

• locally exposing the sample material disposed on one side of a sample carrier to a first radiation that desorbs the sample material into a gas phase, with ionization of the locally desorbed sample material,
• receiving and processing the locally desorbed and ionized sample material to generate spatially resolved molecular image information using an analyser disposed at a distance from the sample carrier,
• recording spatially resolved light microscopy image information from the sample carrier and sample material using a second radiation in reflection through the transparent sample carrier, where the second radiation is emitted by a light source disposed on a side of the sample carrier facing away from the sample material and designed such that the spatially resolved light microscopy image information is recorded in a substantially shadow-free manner, and
• associating the spatially resolved molecular image information and the spatially resolved light microscopy image information to give spatially resolved co-registered overall image information,
• wherein the spatially resolved light microscopy image information is recorded by sequentially scanning a multitude of xy individual image areas on the sample material and computationally conjoining the isolated xy individual image information thusly obtained.