A method for mounting a sensor bearing unit providing a bearing and an impulse ring provided with a target holder and with a target mounted on an axial portion of the target holder. The method including measuring an eccentricity E.sub.1 between the target and the axial portion of the target holder, measuring an eccentricity E.sub.2 between a groove made in the bore of an inner ring of the bearing and the bore, introducing the target holder inside the groove, turning the target holder inside the groove to an angular position in which the eccentricity E.sub.total between the target and the bore of the inner ring is less than or equal to a predetermined value which is lower than the sum of the eccentricities E.sub.1 and E.sub.2, and securing the target holder inside the groove of the inner ring at the angular position.

The present invention relates to an arrangement and a method for single-shot interferometry which can be used for detecting distance, profile, shape, undulation, roughness or the optical path length in or on optically rough or smooth objects or else for optical coherence tomography (OCT). The arrangement comprises a light source, an interferometer, in which an end reflector is arranged in the reference beam path, and also a detector for detecting an interferogram. In the reference beam path of the interferometer, the end reflector can be embodied with three plane reflecting surfaces as a prism mirror or air mirror assembly in order to generate between reference and object beams a lateral shear of magnitude delta_q for obtaining a spatial interferogram. The embodiment of said assembly with regard to the angles and the arrangement of the reflecting surfaces makes possible a large aperture angle for a high numerical aperture. In the method, in the reference beam path it is possible to carry out a reduction of the aperture angle of the reference beam using beam-limiting means in order to achieve an optimum adaptation to the geometrically given aperture angle of the end reflector in the reference beam path, which is designed to be smaller than the aperture angle in the object beam path. The end reflector in the reference beam path can also be used as part of a second interferometer for high-resolution measurement of the displacement of the arrangement for single-shot interferometry, wherein said displacement serves for focusing. The end reflector is embodied as a triple reflection arrangement (e.g. a prism arrangement) having three reflecting surfaces. The triple reflection arrangement can have an M- or W-beam path, a non-intersecting zigzag beam path or an intersecting (zigzag) beam path.

A method for determining a distance of a sample reference plane of a sample carrier from a reference plane of a microscope, the microscope including a sample stage for the sample carrier and a camera, comprises the following steps: taking an overview image of the sample carrier by means of the camera; evaluating the overview image and thus detecting at least one characteristic of the sample carrier; ascertaining contextual data of the characteristic from a data set; and determining the distance of the sample reference plane from the reference plane based on the characteristic and the contextual data of the sample carrier. A microscope configured to determine the distance of the sample reference plane of the sample carrier from the reference plane is also described.

The invention relates to a device, such as a digital holographic microscope, for detecting and processing a first full image of a measurement object, measured with a first offset, wherein an arrangement is provided for generating at least one further full image with at least one offset that differs from the first offset.

The invention relates to a device, such as a digital holographic microscope, for detecting and processing a first full image of a measurement object, measured with a first offset, wherein an arrangement is provided for generating at least one further full image with at least one offset that differs from the first offset.

Provided are a captured image evaluation apparatus, a captured image evaluation method, and a captured image evaluation program capable of evaluating a thickness and a density of stacked cultured cells in a short imaging time. The captured image evaluation apparatus includes: an image acquisition section 52 that acquires captured images obtained by imaging a subject under a condition in which a numerical aperture of an objective lens is changed; a thickness estimation section 53 that estimates a thickness of the subject on the basis of a low NA captured image obtained under a condition in which the numerical aperture of the objective lens is relatively small; and a density estimation section 54 that estimates a density of the subject on the basis of a high NA captured image obtained under a condition in which the numerical aperture of the objective lens is relatively large.

Methods and devices are disclosed to perform depth resolved imaging using parallel lateral detection employing a photodetector block in a detection path that is substantially perpendicular to the direction of light excitation, with applications in microscopy of samples. The photodetector block either comprises a single 1D array of photodetectors or a 2D array of photodetectors. Methods and devices are disclosed to perform coherence gating in configurations of light sheet tomography, to enable simultaneous depth resolved measurements of structure and of index of refraction variation.

Apparatus include a polarization state generator situated to provide an interferometer source beam with a region of polarized source light with a polarization state that is in-plane as subsequently incident on a sample and a region of polarized source light with a polarization state that is perpendicular to in-plane as subsequently incident on the sample, and an interferometer unit configured to split the interferometer source beam into test and reference arm beams, to direct the test arm beam to the sample and the reference arm beam to a reference surface, and to recombine the test and reference arm beams to produce an interferometer output beam. Methods use a polarization state generator to produce an interferometer source beam and use an interferometer unit which splits the interferometer source beam into test and reference arm beams.

A multi-photon imaging system includes a laser module having a first channel for outputting a two-photon excitation laser pulse and a second channel for outputting a three-photon excitation laser pulse. The system further includes a first optical path for guiding the two-photon laser pulse from the first channel of the laser module and a second optical path for guiding the three-photon laser pulse from the second channel of the laser module. A microscope is also provided for simultaneously receiving the two-photon laser pulse from the first optical path and the three-photon laser pulse from the second optical path, and simultaneously, or with well controllable delays, delivering the two-photon laser pulse and the three-photon pulse to a target volume. The system further includes a photodetector configured to collect photons generated within the target volume in response to simultaneous excitation of the target volume by both the two-photon laser pulse and the three-photon laser pulse.

The disclosed spacers for microscope slides may include a spacer body including a material configured to provide an optical focal reference for a microscope and a central opening in the spacer body sized and shaped to receive a cytological sample. The spacer body may have a thickness of about 20 μm or less. Methods of analyzing cytological samples may include disposing a cytological sample on a microscope slide adjacent to a spacer positioned on the microscope slide, focusing an optical module of a microscope to a focal plane using at least a portion of the spacer as a focal reference, and viewing the cytological sample through the optical module of the microscope at the focal plane. Various other related methods, systems, and devices are also disclosed.