Process and arrangement for confocal microscopy

US6462345B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignees

• Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH · DE
• European Molecular Biology Laboratory · DE

Inventors

• Ulrich Simon · Kahla, DE
• Sebastian Tille · Marburg, DE
• Gunter Moehler · Jena, DE
• Stefan Wilhelm · Unterhaching, DE
• Ulrich Meisel · Jena, DE
• Ernst Stelzer · Meckesheim, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Apr 21, 1999
• Grant date: Oct 8, 2002
• Expiry date: Apr 21, 2019

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01N21/645
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A process for confocal microscopy is disclosed in which laser light is coupled into a microscope beam path, directed successively with respect to time onto different locations of a specimen, and an image of the scanned plane is generated from the light reflected and emitted by the irradiated locations. A change in the spectral composition and in the intensity of light is carried out during the deflection of the laser beam from location to location, while the deflection continues in an uninterrupted manner. In this way, at least two locations of the specimen located next to one another are acted upon by light with different spectral characteristics and by laser radiation of different intensity. By periodically interrupting the coupling in of the laser light during the deflection of the microscope beam path, it is made possible that only selected portions of the image field are acted upon by the laser radiation. A laser scanning microscope for carrying out this process is also disclosed.