Nikon Corporation

Tomoko Ujike

Fumihiro Dake

Tomoya Noda

Hiroki Yazawa

A super-resolution observation device includes an illumination optical system collecting a first illuminating light having a first optical frequency &#x3c9;on a first region of an observation object, collecting a second illuminating light having a second optical frequency &#x3c9;' on a second region partially overlapping the first region, and collecting a third illuminating light having a third optical frequency &#x3c9;on a third region containing a non-overlap region which is a region of the first region and does not overlap the second region; and an extraction unit extracting a signal light generated in accordance with a change in an energy level of a substance in the non-overlap region from a light generated in all of the first region, the second region, and the third region.

Observation device including illumination optical system and extraction unit and observation method

A confocal microscope with improved light use efficiency is provided. Thus, the confocal microscope has a section which concentrates illumination light to a target point of a specimen and non-target points adjacent thereto for simultaneous illumination; a section which receives light entering into a light reception portion conjugated with the target point, without distinguishing light emitted from the target point and light emitted from the non-target points, and outputs a light reception signal according to the intensity of the light; a section which changes the number of non-target points and successively captures the light reception signals before and after the change in the number of the target points; and a section which generates a confocal signal according to intensity of light emitted from the target point, based on a relationship between the captured light reception signals and the number of non-target points.

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Tokyo, Japan

Tomoko Ujike