Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Olympus Corporation

Morinao Fukuoka

Yuko Kurasawa

Satoshi Noda

Akihiro Namba

Mitsuo Harada

Minoru Inami

Hiroaki Kinoshita

Masayuki Yamane

Seiya Takahashi

Hisashi Koike

There is provided a retention mechanism for an immersion medium, for use in a device which observes/measures a sample by use of an immersion objective lens, includes a member which retains the immersion medium near a tip portion of the objective lens, wherein the member is configured to include at least first and second materials.

Immersion objective lens, retention mechanism for immersion medium, and manufacturing method

Immersion objective lens, retention mechanism for immersion medium, and manufacturing method thereof

A liquid pipetting apparatus for dispensing liquid of minute volume for use in a survey instruments of a hemanalysis machine, a genetic screening, and a pharmaceutical screening, etc., is disclosed. The liquid pipetting apparatus comprises a liquid holding member for holding the liquid, and capable of dispensing the liquid from one end, and a driving member for moving the liquid holding member forward and backward along the dispensing direction, the liquid holding member being moved by the driving means, thereby dispensing the liquid held on the liquid holding member.

Liquid pipetting apparatus and micro array manufacturing apparatus

In a method of making a high-quality silica glass, a rare earth element that is a substance making a great contribution to the index of refraction is introduced therein together with aluminum for stabilizing the glass. An alkoxide of aluminum or its derivative is used as the starting material for preparing a boehmite sol. A salt of at least one element selected from rare earth elements or a solution in which the salt is dissolved and the boehmite sol are mixed with a silica sol, whereupon the sols are vitrified.

Glass-making method

The present invention provides a glass body with distributed composition which contains, for example, a rare-earth element having a concentration distribution, which can be produced in high yield while inhibiting cracking at the time of vitrification and which has optical properties advantageous in correcting chromatic aberration in image pickup systems. For example, in a four-component glass composed of SiO.sub.2, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, Y.sub.2 O.sub.3 and ZrO.sub.2 in which Y.sub.2 O.sub.3 has a recessed parabolic concentration distribution profile being high at the periphery of the glass and low at the center of the glass and in which each of ZrO.sub.2 and Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 has a protrudent parabolic concentration distribution profile lowering from the center of the glass toward the periphery of the glass, there is the relationship:

Glass body with distribution composition

A glass with no stria form of defects induced therein is produced by a sol-gel technique. At a sol gelation step, the gelation temperature is maintained constant within the range of .+-.7.degree. C. with respect to the temperature of a sol as charged in a gelation vessel, and the sol is gelated at a constant colloidal particle diameter with no vibrations applied thereto.

Glass production

A method for manufacturing a glass is provided, comprising converting a porous body to a multi-component glass, wherein a porous body containing at least one metal component in the form of a metal salt is immersed in a solution containing at least one compound selected from the group consisting of an acid, an ammonium salt and an alkylammonium salt to precipitate the metal salt as microcrystals in the pore. Also, a method for manufacturing a glass for use as a gradient index optical element is provided, comprising converting a porous body to a multi-component glass, wherein a porous body containing at least one metal component in the form of a metal salt is immersed in a solution containing a salt of a metal component different from the above-mentioned at least one component and at least one compound selected from the group consisting of an acid and a salt to provide the metal components with concentration distributions. In these methods, not only the metal salt present in dissolved form in the pores of the porous body can be fixed to the pores with certainty, but also it is feasible to individually control the behaviors of a plurality of metal salts in the porous body.

Solution doping of sol gel bodies to make graded index glass articles

A gradient index optical element for use in optical lens such as a camera or microscope is disclosed. The optical element comprises at least one of first metal dopants selected from La, Zr, Sn, In, Y, Ge, Zn, Ba, Ca, As, Sr, Ga and Gd distributed in solvent with a slope, and at least one of second metal dopants selected from Nb, Ta, Ti, Bi, Pb, Sb, Zr, Sn, In, Y and Tl, which is distributed equally in the solvent so as to satisfy following equation as absolute amount;

Gradient index optical element

A gradient index optical element has at least one first metal dopant selected from the group consisting of La, Y, Ga, In, Ge, Sn, Zn, Zr, Ba, Ca, As, Sr, Gd and Be distributed at a concentration gradient in a glass medium. The concentration gradient of the first metal dopant defines a slope having a direction. At least one second metal dopant different from the first metal dopant and selected from the group consisting of Bi, Sb, Nb, Ti, Ta, Pb, Tl, Zr, In, Sn, Y, Ba, Ca and Sr is distributed at a concentration gradient in the glass medium. The concentration gradient of the second metal dopant defines a slope smaller than the slope of the concentration gradient of the first metal dopant. The slope of the concentration gradient of the second metal dopant is in the same direction as the slope of the concentration gradient of the first metal dopant. The thus obtained gradient index optical element has excellent chromatic aberration correction in which the Abbe number increases as the refractive index becomes large, or the change of the Abbe number is small as the refractive index increases.

A method of manufacturing distributed index optical elements is disclosed. The method comprises a step of preparing silica sol including at least one of metal dopants, a step of dipping, after subjecting the silica sol to a gelling treatment, the silica gel in an elute into which a part of metal constituents other than silicon including in the gel is selectively eluted, and a step of drying and sintering the silica gel.

Growing community of inventors

Sagamihara, Japan

Morinao Fukuoka