Flow cytometer, position calculation method, and program

Abstract

A flow cytometer includes a microfluidic device, a light source, a photodetector that detects, in time series, the intensity of signal light emitted from an observation object when the observation object flowing through a flow path is irradiated with illumination light, an information generation device that generates optical information indicating a structure of the observation object based on the intensity of the signal light, an arithmetic device, and a flow path position control device, wherein the arithmetic device includes a signal intensity acquiring unit that acquires electronic data of temporal changes in the intensity of the signal light detected based on a detection position predetermined in the flow path to detect the depth position in the flow path where the observation object passes through the flow path, a scan unit that performs a scan process to move the flow path in the depth direction and acquire the electronic data at different depth positions, a position calculation unit that calculates the depth position based on the electronic data, and an output unit that outputs position information indicating the depth position calculated by the position calculation unit.