Method and apparatus for illuminating a transparent specimen
AssigneeLeica Microsystems Heidelberg GmbH
InventorJoerg Bewersdorf
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and an apparatus for illuminating a transparent specimen (1), in particular for use in double confocal scanning microscopy, wherein for illumination of a point of the specimen (1), two light waves of a coherent light source (4) focused from opposite directions (2, 3) onto the point interfere to form an illumination pattern, and in order to eliminate the causes of the problems of the reconstruction method, at least two additional coherent light waves traveling toward one another are superimposed in order to minimize the secondary maxima (11, 12) of the illumination pattern.
Claims19
A method for illuminating a transparent specimen (1) comprising the steps of:
- illuminating of a point of the specimen (1) with two light waves of a coherent light source (4) defining a first electromagnetic field strength;
- focusing the light waves from opposite directions (2, 3) onto the point;
- interfering the light waves at the point to form a first, original illumination pattern;
- and,
- superimposing a second illumination pattern, comprising at least two additional coherent light waves defining a second electromagnetic field strength traveling toward one another with the original illumination pattern in order to minimize a secondary maxima (11, 12) of the original illumination pattern.
An apparatus for illuminating a transparent specimen (1) comprising:
- a coherent light source (4) defining a beam of coherent light traveling along an illumination beam path,
- means for directing the beam of coherent light to a point of the specimen (1),
- means for focussing the coherent light waves from opposite directions (2, 3) onto the point of the specimen (1), such that two light waves of a coherent light beam defining a first electromagnetic field strength, interfere at the point forming an illumination pattern and
- an optical unit for generating at least two additional coherent light waves defining a second electromagnetic field strength traveling toward one another and superimposing with the illumination pattern in order to minimize a secondary maxima (11, 12) of the illumination pattern.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.