Patent ID: 9383563
Filing Date: 2016-07-05
CPC Classification: G02B

Claim Text:
1. A confocal image generation apparatus comprising: a laser light source configured to emit an excitation light for exciting a sample; an objective configured to irradiate the sample with the excitation light by collecting the excitation light and to take in fluorescence generated from the sample by irradiation of the excitation light; an optical path branch element configured to branch an optical path of the excitation light and an optical path of the fluorescence, the optical path branch element being disposed on an optical path between the laser light source and the objective; a scanning optical system configured to shift a light collecting position of the excitation light on a focal plane of the objective in a direction that is orthogonal to an optical axis of the objective, the scanning optical system being disposed on an optical path between the objective and the optical path branch element; an optical detector having a plurality of light-receiving elements, in which the plurality of light-receiving elements are two-dimensionally arrayed with a pitch that is shorter than a diameter of an Airy disk of the fluorescence formed on an imaging plane, so that a light-receiving surface is positioned on an optical path of the fluorescence that is branched from an optical path of the excitation light and on the imaging plane that is optically conjugated with the focal plane; and an image operation unit configured to generate a confocal image of the sample in which a super-resolution component is enhanced with respect to a frequency component whose frequency is equal to or less than a cut-off frequency of the objective which is determined by a numerical aperture of the objective and a wavelength of the fluorescence, the super-resolution component being included in a signal output from the plurality of light-receiving elements and being a frequency component that exceeds the cut-off frequency.