Patent ID: RE38860

Claim:
A scanning optical microscope comprising: a laser source; a scan optical system for scanning a sample with a laser beam from said laser source; a spectral resolving optical system for resolving spectra of fluorescent rays from said sample; a wavelength splitting optical system for splitting said fluorescent rays that have passed said spectral resolving optical system into rays of a plurality of different wavelengths and guiding said split rays to optical paths of said plurality of different wavelengths; a plurality of image forming optical systems, respectively provided in said optical paths of said plurality of different wavelengths, for forming images of said fluorescent rays from said sample; a plurality of confocal apertures respectively provided in said optical paths at focal points of said image forming optical systems; and a plurality of photosensors, respectively provided in said optical paths, for sensing said fluorescent rays from said sample that have passed the respective confocal apertures.