Patent ID: 7709773
Filing Date: 2010-05-04
Classification: G01N,G02B

Abstract:
1. A scanning optical device comprising: a laser light source for emitting laser light; a scanning unit for scanning a surface of a specimen with the laser light emitted from the laser light source; a focus depth adjusting unit for adjusting a depth of a focus position in the specimen of the laser light scanned by the scanning unit; a fluorescence detector for detecting fluorescence generated from the focus position of the laser light in the specimen; a reference depth information storage unit for storing an absolute height of a predetermined reference depth of the focus position adjusted by the focus depth adjusting unit; a hardware setting storage unit for storing (i) a relative height with respect to the absolute height of the reference depth, at each depth of a plurality of the focus positions at different depths adjusted by the focus depth adjusting unit, and (ii) a hardware set value in association with each said relative height, wherein each hardware set value contains a set value of at least one of the laser light source and the fluorescence detector; and a control unit for obtaining a plurality of fluorescence information in a depth direction of the specimen by detecting fluorescence from the specimen by the fluorescence detector after varying the depth of the focus position of the laser light with respect to the reference depth by using the focus depth adjusting unit and carrying out setting of at least one of the laser light source and the fluorescence detector in association with the depth of the focus position based on the stored hardware set values.