Light stimulation device and microscope system

Abstract

The number of stimulated spots and/or the area of a stimulated spot is easily increased or decreased while keeping the irradiation power for each stimulated spot constant. Provided is a light stimulation device () that includes an objective lens () that radiates stimulation light emitted from a stimulation laser () onto a specimen (S); an LCOS-SLM () that is located at a position conjugate to the pupil of the objective lens () and that can modulate the phase of stimulation light to be made to enter the objective lens () based on a predetermined pupil modulation pattern; an AOM () that adjusts the amount of stimulation light to be made to enter the LCOS-SLM (); a mouse () that is used to specify the number of spots and the position of a spot of light to be radiated onto the specimen (S); and a controller main unit () that determines the pupil modulation pattern for the LCOS-SLM () according to the number of spots and the position of a spot specified by means of the mouse () and that controls the AOM () such that, when the number of spots specified by means of the mouse () is changed, the amount of light to be radiated onto each spot before and after the change in the number of spots becomes constant.