Patent ID: 7817271

Claim:
A confocal microscope for observing a sample comprising an optics, a scanning device, a photosensor, an illumination light beam, a detection light beam emanating from the sample, a spectrally split detection light beam, at least one light source emitting the illumination light beam illuminating the sample pointwise and/or linewise through the optics via the scanning device, a detection pinhole diaphragm in the detection light beam, a dispersive element splitting the detection light beam spectrally in space producing the spectrally split detection light beam, a detector optics imaging the spectrally split detection light beam onto the photosensor, a detection pinhole diaphragm in the detection light beam upstream of the dispersive element, and at least one expansion optics upstream of the dispersive element in the detection light beam the expansion optics providing that a numerical aperture of the detector optics is independent of a numerical aperture of the detection light beam at the detection pinhole diaphragm.