Patent ID: 6667830
Filing Date: 2003-12-23
Classification: G01N,G02B,G21K

Abstract:
A microscope system comprising:an adjusted specimen; and a microscope body; wherein said adjusted specimen is dyed with a molecule which has three electron states including at least a ground state and which has an excited wavelength band from a first electron excited state to a second electron excited state which overlaps a fluorescent wavelength band upon deexcitation through a fluorescence process from the first electron excited state to a vibrational level in the ground state; wherein said microscope body includes: a light source operable to provide light having a wavelength &lgr;1 for exciting the molecule from the ground state to the first electron excited state; a light source operable to provide light having a wavelength &lgr;2 for exciting the molecule in the first electron excited state to the second or higher electron excited state; a condensing optical system operable to condense the light having the wavelength &lgr;1 and the light having the wavelength &lgr;2 on said adjusted specimen; an overlap device operable to partially overlap an irradiation region of the light having the wavelength &lgr;1 and an irradiation region of the light having the wavelength &lgr;2 on said adjusted specimen; and an emission detector operable to detect an emission upon deexcitation of the excited molecule to the ground state; wherein a region of the emission upon deexcitation of the molecule from the first electron excited state to the ground state is inhibited by irradiating the light having the wavelength &lgr;1 and the light having the wavelength &lgr;2 through said overlap device; and wherein a beam obtained by condensing the light having the wavelength &lgr;2 has a phase distribution in which the phase is shifted by &pgr; at a symmetric position with respect to an optical axis of the beam in a plane normal to the optical axis.