Patent · US Expired

Process and device for optically measuring a point on a sample with high local resolution

US5731588A · kind A · utility

84Cited by

0References

23Claims

0Family size

Inventors

Stefan W. Hell · Oebisfelde, DE
Jan Wichmann · Heidelberg, DE

Key dates

Filing date	Nov 21, 1996
Grant date	Mar 24, 1998
Priority date	—
Expiry date	Nov 21, 2016

Classification

Technology area (CPC G)Physics
CPC primaryG02B21/16
WIPO fieldMeasurement
WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

The invention relates to a device for the optical measurement of a point (7) on a sample (8) with high-local resolution, with a light source (1) to emit a beam (16) suitable for exciting an energy state in the sample (8), and a detector (9) to detect the emitted light. The lateral resolution of the device is improved in that there is a stimulation light beam (17) from the exciting light source (1) to generate stimulated emission at the point (7) on the sample (8) excited by the light beam (16), in which the exciting light beam (16) and the stimulation light beam (17) are arranged in such a way that their intensity distributions partly overlap in the focal region.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.