Patent ID: 7365842

Claim:
A light scanning type confocal microscope comprising: a light source unit that projects an excitation light beam; a scanning optical system that scans the excitation light beam; an objective lens that applies the excitation light beam to a sample; a separation optical element that separates the excitation light applied to the sample and detection light generated by the sample upon application of the excitation light; a confocal detection unit that obtains a confocal effect; and a spectral detection device that spectrally detects the detection light, the spectral detection device including: a spectroscopic element that spectrally separates the detection light, a light extracting unit that extracts light in a wavelength band having an arbitrary width from the detection light spectrally separated by the spectroscopic element, a detector that detects the light extracted by the light extracting unit, and a wavelength band shifting unit that shifts a wavelength band of light to be extracted by the light extracting unit; wherein a shift amount of the wavelength band by the wavelength band shifting unit is smaller than a width of the wavelength band.