Patent ID: 7301697

Claim:
A microscope device comprising: a convergence optical system in which an illumination light beam from a light source portion is caused to strike an object while being converged by an objective lens, and in which a light beam reflected from a convergence point on said object and returned to said objective lens is converged at a position on an image pickup plane in a conjugate relationship with said convergence point, said convergence optical system including: a collimator lens provided in an optical path from said light source portion to said objective lens, said collimator lens forming the illumination light beam from said light source portion into a parallel light beam; and a parallel beam selection optical system which is provided in an optical path from said objective lens to said image pickup plane, and which selects only a light beam reflected from said convergence point and entering as a predetermined parallel beam and allows the selected light beam to exit therefrom, wherein said parallel beam selection optical system is provided in the optical path between said collimator lens and said objective lens, wherein said convergence optical system includes a polarization beam splitter provided in the optical path between said light source portion and said parallel beam selection optical system, at a branch point between the going path from said light source portion to said object and the return path from said object to said image pickup plane, and wherein a ¼ wavelength plate is provided in the optical path between said parallel beam selection optical system and said objective lens.