Confocal optical scanner

In a confocal optical scanner comprising a pinhole plate defining a plurality of pinholes to scan light passing through said pinholes onto a sample, the improvement comprising

• said pinhole plate comprising a collector disk on which a plurality of collector means are formed, a pinhole disk defining a plurality of pinholes, and means for connecting said collector disk and pinhole disk so that said pinholes are disposed at focal points of said plurality of collector means;
• wherein said plurality of pinholes are formed in a plurality of lines outwardly extending from the center of said disk and in a plurality of substantially concentric rows extending outwardly from said center, wherein said rows are substantially spiral in shape, and wherein a first pitch between adjacent lines is substantially equal to a second pitch between adjacent rows as measured from the same pinhole;
• wherein said first and second pitches are disposed to be equal when the center coordinate of each pinhole satisfies the following equation:
• ##EQU8## wherein i=1,2,. . ., n, being the order from inside of the spiral, r.sub.i =radius of ith pinhole;
• and r.sub.o =innermost radius;
• .theta..sub.i =angle of ith pinhole;
• m=number of spirals;
• and a=pinhole pitch;
• rotating means for rotating said pinhole plate at a constant speed;
• and
• a branch optical system provided between said collector disk and said pinhole disk of said pinhole plate;
• wherein
• light reflected from said sample is outputted after passing through said pinhole disk at a right angle direction from a light axis direction of said light inputted through said collector disk by being bent in its optical path by said branch optical system.