Laser scanning optical microscope

A laser scanning optical microscope in which a laser beam from a laser light source is focussed to a small spot by an objective optical system and projected onto a specimen while also being scanned two-dimensionally, and light reflected or transmitted by the specimen is detected and photoelectrically converted by light receiving means to thereby obtain image information on the specimen, the laser scanning optical microscope comprising:

• a laser diode array for generating a laser beam;
• a drive circuit for driving the laser diode array to scan a specimen with the laser beam in one direction at a prescribed frequency;
• two mechanical optical scanning means for scanning the laser beam perpendicularly and parallel to the scanning direction of the laser diode array at two frequencies that are lower than the prescribed frequency;
• light receiving means including a photodiode array for detecting and photoelectrically converting light reflected or transmitted by the specimen;
• and
• signal processing means for converting a detection signal obtained from the light receiving means to a standard television scanning signal corresponding to a laser beam scanning pattern obtained with the laser diode array and two mechanical optical scanning means.