An achromatic 3D STED measuring optical process and optical method, based on a conical diffraction effect or an effect of propagation of light in uniaxial crystals, including a cascade of at least two uniaxial or conical diffraction crystals creating, from a laser source, all of the light propagating along substantially the same optical path, from the output of an optical bank to the objective of a microscope. A spatial position of at least one luminous nano-emitter, structured object or a continuous distribution in a sample is determined.

Reconstruction of the sample and its spatial and/or temporal and/or spectral properties is treated as an inverse Bayesian problem leading to the definition of an a posteriori distribution, and a posteriori relationship combining, by virtue of the Bayes law, the probabilistic formulation of a noise model, and possible priors on a distribution of light created in the sample by projection.

According to one aspect, the invention relates to a device (100, 200, 300, 400, 500) for measuring the distance, with respect to a reference plane (P.sub.REF), from a point of light (P.sub.i) of an object (O). The device comprises a two-dimensional detector (30) comprising a detection plane (P.sub.DET) and an imaging system (10) adapted to form an image of a light spot (P.sub.i) situated on an object of interest plane (11) in an image plane (11′) arranged in the vicinity of the detection plane (P.sub.DET) or a conjugate plane (P′.sub.DET) of the detection plane. The device further comprises a separator element (20) for forming, from a beam emitted by a point of light of the object of interest plane (11), and emerging from the imaging system (10) at least two coherent beams, having a spatial superposition region in which the beams interfere and a signal processing means (50) for determining, from the interference pattern formed on the detection plane, and resulting from the optical interferences between said coherent beams, the distance from the point of light to a conjugate plane of the detection plane in the object space of the imaging system (10), said conjugate plane of the detection plane forming the reference plane (P.sub.REF).

A method for SPIM microscopy with a microscope winch includes (1) an illumination arrangement for illuminating a sample with a substantially planar light sheet, and (2) a detection arrangement for detecting light emitted by the sample with an objective. The sample is displaced through the light sheet in direction of the objective's optical axis, and the sample is illuminated under a first illumination angle and a second illumination angle. A plurality of sample planes are then detected at each illumination angle and stored as at least a first image stack and a second image stack. The image stacks are aligned relative to one another, and are combined in one image stack. A the three-dimensional image stack is projected into a two-dimensional rendering, sample features are aligned, a coordinate transformation is determined, and the coordinate transformation for alignment is applied to the combined image stack.

The invention is a system and method to measure oil content in water utilizing the fluorescence of oil emitted under excitation by laser. Oil and water mixture is transferred through the system to a measurement section in a microscope, which produces high resolution 3-dimensional images of the oil and water mixture with the fluorescence. The images are analyzed to calculate the amount of oil in water and oil droplets distribution. The image is also analyzed to distinguish oil coated solids from oil droplets, and to calculate the sizes and volumes of the solids.

Unnecessary degradation of a light detector is prevented. Provided is a microscope apparatus (100) including: a scanner (5) that that performs scanning of illumination light emitted from a light source (3) on a specimen in two directions intersecting each other; an objective lens (7) that collects fluorescence produced in the specimen; a dispersive element (15) that disperses the fluorescence collected by the objective lens (7) into spectral components; a multichannel detector (20) that has a plurality of cells (21) for detecting the spectral components obtained through the dispersion performed by the dispersive element (15); a grouping control section (31) that groups the plurality of cells (21) of the multichannel detector (20) into a used group and an unused group; and a sensitivity control section (33) that turns off the sensitivities of the cells that are grouped into the unused group by the grouping control section (31) or reduces the sensitivities thereof with respect to the sensitivities of the cells that are grouped into the used group.

A light sheet microscope includes a sample chamber in which a cover slip or slide is arrangeable, which has a surface that defines a partially reflective interface and which has a further surface that defines a further partially reflective interface. The two interfaces are arranged at different distances from an objective. The light sheet microscope further includes an optical system having the objective facing toward the cover slip or slide, an illumination apparatus, which is designed to generate a light sheet, a sensor, and a processor. The two interfaces are formed in that two optical media are applicable in the sample chamber. The light sheet microscope forms a measuring device for acquiring a measured variable. The sensor is designed to acquire the intensities and/or the incidence locations of the two reflection light beams.

A super resolution microscope system is disclosed and described. The system can include a sample stage (180) adapted to receive a sample (185) including probe molecules. At least one light source (105) is provided to produce a coherent excitation light to excite the probe molecules and cause luminescence of the probe molecules. An image detector (100) can detect the luminescence from the probe molecules. A microlens array (125) can be positioned in a beam path (110) of the coherent light from the at least one light source (105). The beam path (110) of the coherent light extends between the light source (105) and the sample stage (180). The microlens array (125) can also be positioned in a beam path (112) of the luminescence from the probe molecules. The beam path (112) of the luminescence extends between the sample stage (180) and the image detector (100).

In order to generate rasterized images of a sample, a pixel size of image points of a rasterized image is set and photons emitted out of the sample which were detected, and for each of which a position of an effective local excitation of the sample for emitting the respective detected photon has been recorded are assigned to that image point of the rasterized image into which the position of the effective local excitation recorded for the respective detected photon falls. To set the pixel size of the image points to an optimized pixel size, the positions of the effective local excitation of the sample for emitting the detected photons are evaluated.

There is provided a measurement apparatus including a control unit configured to control an on/off state of illumination that does not contribute to acquisition of measurement data on the basis of an acquisition time period of the measurement data.

A confocal microscope is provided that includes one or more lasers focused by an optical system into a line on the surface of a sample mounted to a stage. The microscope further includes at least one linear array detector that is optically conjugated to the focused line. The stage permits movement of the sample with respect to all other components of the microscope, which remain stationary.