A confocal microscope includes a housing, which may be printed, and which includes mounts for receiving optical and other components of the microscope. The positions of the mounts are pre-determined so as to obviate the need for complex calibration of the components. The components and optical path lengths are selected in order to optimise the size of the microscope.

An adapter configured to be optically coupled to a plurality of microscopes and having (i) a first microscope interface configured to optically couple a first microscope system to an optical element that is in optical communication with an optical probe to provide first imaging data of a sample, and (ii) a second microscope interface configured to optically couple a second microscope system to the optical element to provide second imaging data of the sample. An optical imaging apparatus and method utilizing such adapter.

A sample shape measuring method includes a step of preparing illumination light passing through a predetermined illumination region, a step of applying the illumination light to a sample, and a predetermined processing step. The predetermined illumination region is set such that the illumination light is applied to part of inside of a pupil and outside of the pupil, a light intensity of the illumination light incident on the predetermined illumination region differs between a center and a periphery. The predetermined processing step includes a step of receiving light transmitted through the observation optical system, a step of obtaining a quantity of light of the received light, a step of calculating a difference or a ratio between the quantity of light and a reference quantity of light, and a step of calculating an amount of tilt in a surface of the sample from the difference or the ratio.

In one implementation, a spectral microscope may comprise a substrate with a planar lens, the planar lens including a phase profile including an axial focus and an oblique focus, a light source to excite a signal of a particle among a plurality of particles, and a detector to receive light generated from the light source from the axial focus of the planar lens and a spectral color component of the excited signal of the particle from the oblique focus of the planar lens.

Methods and systems are provided to facilitate simultaneous high-resolution microscopic imaging of cells and detection of side-scattered light from such cells using an immersion objective. A container maintains a volume of an immersion oil or other immersion fluid in contact with the immersion objective and with a stage that contains a sample of the cells. The container also includes a window through which the cells can be illuminated off-axis to generate side-scattered light. The side-scattered light can then be detected through the immersion objective. The container maintains the immersion fluid in contact with an internal surface of the window to control the geometry of the optical interface between the off-axis illumination source and the immersion fluid. These systems permit high-throughput identification and imaging of cells for biological research, improvement of side-scatter cell classifiers, improved high-throughput cell sorting, and other applications.

A method for regulating a light source of a microscope that illuminates an object, said method including specifying an intended value of an energy parameter of illumination radiation on the object; producing illumination radiation; providing an objective for focusing illumination radiation onto the object; ascertaining a transmission property of the objective for the illumination radiation; output coupling a component of the illumination radiation upstream of the objective as measurement radiation and measuring an actual value of the energy parameter of the measurement radiation; providing a relationship between energy parameters of the measurement radiation and energy parameters of the illumination radiation on the object, and setting the light source in such a way that the actual value of the energy parameter measured for the measurement radiation corresponds to the intended value of the energy parameter according to the relationship.

A microscope for imaging an object, comprising a lens for imaging the object through an imaging beam path, a light source for generating illumination radiation, at least one optical element for coupling the illumination radiation into the imaging beam path such that a common beam path is formed between the optical element and the lens, wherein the imaging radiation path runs through the common beam path, and the illumination radiation is guided through the common beam path. The microscope also comprises a monitoring device for measuring an energy parameter of the illumination radiation, said monitoring device determining an energy parameter of radiation which is incident on the monitoring device, and a beam splitter device which is arranged in the common beam path upstream of the lens in the illuminating direction and couples measurement radiation out of the illumination radiation onto the monitoring device.

The present invention is intended to provide an adaptive optics system and an optical device that allow correction of wavefront phase aberration with higher accuracy than before and have a wider correction range than the conventional ones, regardless of the distance between the observation target and the fluctuation layer, and the size of the observation target. An adaptive optics system includes: a wavefront phase modulator that makes aberration correction to incident light and emits the corrected light; and an imaging-conjugated position adjustment mechanism that adjusts freely within a specimen the position of a surface imaging-conjugated with a fluctuation correction surface formed by the wavefront phase modulator. The imaging-conjugated position adjustment mechanism adjusts the fluctuation correction surface to be imaging-conjugated with a fluctuation layer existing in the specimen.

An operating method of a biological detection calibration system, adapted for a biological detection device which includes a light source for emitting a light to detect a biological sample. A step is performed to detect whether a light calibration device exists on the biological detection device, wherein the light calibration device includes a carrier and a calibration sample disposed on the carrier, and the calibration sample includes a light detector. If the light calibration device exists, the intensity of the light detected by the light detector is read to determine whether the intensity of the light detected by the light detector is less than a predetermined value. If the intensity of the light detected by the light detector is less than the predetermined value, a driving voltage of the light source is enhanced, such that the intensity of the light detected by the light detector reaches the predetermined value.

The invention relates to a microscope for the molecular spectroscopic analysis of a sample (2), having a beam path having at least one quantum cascade laser (QCL) (3) which emits an infrared (IR) radiation, a phase modulator (5) which is arranged between the QCL (3) and the sample (2), at least one optical element (6) which is arranged between the phase modulator (5) and the sample (2) and a sensor (4) which detects an IR radiation which is transmitted and/or reflected by the sample (2). The invention relates further to a method for the molecular spectroscopic analysis of a sample (2) comprising the steps of irradiating the sample (2) with an infrared (IR) radiation by means of a quantum cascade laser (QCL) (3), wherein the IR radiation is directed onto the sample (2) via a phase modulator (5) and at least one optical element (6), and detecting the IR radiation which is reflected and/or transmitted by the sample (2).