Scanning optical microscope
AssigneeOlympus Corporation
InventorsHiroya Fukuyama, Takehiro Yoshida
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A scanning optical microscope using a wavefront converting element suffers minimum off-axis performance degradation and allows the wavefront converting element to be controlled by a simple method. Further, a pupil relay optical system is simple in arrangement or unnecessary. A laser scanning microscope includes a laser oscillator 6 and a wavefront converting element 5 for applying a desired wavefront conversion to a laser beam 15 emitted from the laser oscillator 6. An objective 7 collects a wavefront-converted approximately parallel laser beam 17 emerging from the wavefront converting element 5 onto a sample 9. A detector 29 detects signal light emitted from the sample 9. An actuator 8 scans the objective 7 along a direction perpendicular to the optical axis.
Claims2
A scanning optical microscope comprising:
- a light source;
- an optical element having a positive power for convening illuminating light emitted from said light source into a convergent beam;
- a reflecting mirror with an aperture, wherein the reflecting mirror being located substantially at a position where the illuminating light is converged into the convergent beam by the optical element;
- a reflection type wavefront converting element for applying a desired wavefront conversion to said illuminating light passing through the aperture in said reflecting mirror, wherein said wavefront converting element reflects the wavefront convened illuminating light and the wavefront-converted illuminating light is reflected at said reflecting mirror;
- an objective for collecting said wavefront-convened illuminating light reflected at said reflecting mirror onto a sample;
- and a detector for detecting signal light emitted from said sample.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.