The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 15, 1998
Filed:
Jan. 10, 1997
Tatsuro Otaki, Tokyo, JP;
Nikon Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
Apparatus are disclosed that perform, on demand, both near-field microscopy (NFM) and light-microscopy (e.g., bright-field microscopy or phase-contrast microscopy) of a specimen. The apparatus comprises an NFM microscope including an NFM probe, a first condenser lens system that converges a center portion of an illumination-light flux at a first terminus of the NFM probe, and a second condenser lens system that converges an annular portion of the illumination-light flux at a specimen to illuminate the specimen by Kohler illumination. Evanescent light from a distal terminus of the NFM probe passes to a locus on the specimen. Downstream optics capture light transmitted and/or scattered from the specimen from the NFM probe and from the Kohler illumination to produce both a light-microscope image of the specimen and an NFM image of the specimen.