Patent ID: 9575303
Date: 2017-02-21
CPC Classifications: G01N,G02B

Claim:
1. A microscope apparatus used for TIRF observation, the microscope apparatus comprising: an objective lens that irradiates a sample with illumination light emitted from a light source and concentrates reflected light which is reflected from the sample; an image construction unit that detects the reflected light concentrated by the objective lens and constructs an image of the sample; an intensity adjustment unit that adjusts an intensity of the illumination light to the sample through the objective lens; a sensitivity adjustment unit that adjusts a detection sensitivity of the image construction unit for detecting the reflected light; a light focusing position change unit that shifts a light focusing position of the illumination light in a direction that is perpendicular to an optical axis of the objective lens at a pupil position of the objective lens, while maintaining a light axis of the illumination light at a position before being irradiated onto the objective lens to be parallel to the optical axis of the objective lens, wherein the illumination light at said position is directed to the objective lens by an optical element without being reflected or refracted by any other optical element between said optical element and the objective lens; a storage unit that stores, for each of a plurality of observation methods which corresponds to a respective light focusing position of the illumination light concentrated on the pupil position of the objective lens, a predetermined intensity of the illumination light to be adjusted by the intensity adjustment unit, a predetermined detection sensitivity of the image construction unit to be adjusted by the sensitivity adjustment unit, and the light focusing position of the illumination light to be targeted by the light focusing position change unit; an observation method switching unit that switches the observation method in response to a synchronization signal which is synchronized with a frame signal sent from the image construction unit for constructing the image; and a control unit that reads out the predetermined intensity of the illumination light, the predetermined detection sensitivity of the image construction unit, and the light focusing position of the illumination light which are stored in the storage unit according to the observation method to be applied by the observation method switching unit based on the synchronization signal, and that controls an adjustment of the intensity of the illumination light by the intensity adjustment unit, an adjustment of the detection sensitivity of the image construction unit by the sensitivity adjustment unit, and a shift of the light focusing position of the illumination light by the light focusing position change unit, wherein the light focusing position change unit is configured to shift the light focusing position from a center of the pupil position of the objective lens so as to make the illumination light radiated from the objective lens toward the sample incident obliquely on a glass plate which covers the sample, such that the illumination light is totally reflected by the glass plate and thereby the sample is illuminated with evanescent light permeated from the glass plate for the TIRF observation, and wherein the light focusing position change unit is configured to shift the light focusing position to the center of the pupil position of the objective lens so as to make the illumination light radiated from the objective lens toward the sample incident substantially along the optical axis of the objective lens.