Confocal microscope

A confocal microscope comprising:

• a light source for illuminating a sample;
• a pinhole substrate having a plurality of pinholes permitting illumination light from said light source to pass therethrough;
• an objective lens and image formation optical system located between said sample and said pinhole substrate;
• a relay lens located on a side of said light source with respect to said pinhole substrate for pre-forming light passing through said pinholes into an image;
• a longitudinal chromatic aberration-producing optical element located in an optical path between said pinhole substrate and said sample;
• and
• a plurality of longitudinal chromatic aberration-producing optical elements for producing different longitudinal chromatic aberrations at least one of said plurality of longitudinal chromatic aberration-producing optical elements being selectively located between said pinhole substrate and said sample,
• said pinhole substrate being located at a position selected from the group of positions consisting of
• a position of an image formed by said objective lens and image formation optical system,
• a position in the vicinity of said position of said image,
• a position conjugate with said position of said image, and
• a position in the vicinity of said conjugate position, and
• said objective lens being arranged to focus illumination light passing through said pinhole substrate onto said sample;
• and
• said image formation optical system being arranged to focus light passing through said objective lens upon reflection from said sample,
• wherein longitudinal chromatic aberration produced by said objective lens and said image formation optical system is smaller than a focal depth of said objective lens,
• wherein said plurality of longitudinal chromatic aberration-producing optical elements includes the first-mentioned longitudinal chromatic aberration-producing optical element, and
• wherein said plurality of longitudinal chromatic aberration-producing optical elements are mounted in at least one of a replaceable, attachable or detachable manner.

A confocal microscope, comprising:

• a light source for illuminating a sample;
• a pinhole substrate having a plurality of pinholes permitting illumination light from said light source to pass therethrough;
• an objective lens and image formation optical system located between said sample and said pinhole substrate;
• a relay lens located on a side of said light source with respect to said pinhole substrate for pre-forming light passing through said pinholes into an image,
• said pinhole substrate being located at a position selected from the group of positions consisting of
• a position of an image formed by said objective lens and image formation optical system,
• a position in the vicinity of said position of said image,
• a position conjugate with said position of said image, and
• a position in the vicinity of said conjugate position, and
• said objective lens being arranged to focus illumination light passing through said pinhole substrate onto said sample;
• and
• said image formation optical system being arranged to focus light passing through said objective lens upon reflection from said sample,
• wherein a first objective lens of said objective lens and a second objective lens of said objective lens are mounted in such a way that they are changeable with each other, longitudinal chromatic aberration produced by said first objective lens and said image formation optical system is larger than a focal depth of said first objective lens and longitudinal chromatic aberration produced by said second objective lens and said image formation optical system is smaller than a second focal depth of said second object lens.