Patent ID: 7342717

Claim:
A wave field microscope comprising: an illumination system for illuminating an object for examination with a plurality of coherent light beams through at least one objective lens arrangement, the object having a plurality of object structures, the light beams interfering in at least one object plane and illuminating the object in the object plane with an interference pattern; an optical detection system; and a holding device for the object, the interference pattern being a two- or three dimensional point pattern generated by two or three standing wave fields, the object being shiftable relative to the point pattern, each object structure causing a modulation of the light detected by the optical detection system within a detection point spread function, the modulation being given by the point spread function of the wave field microscope through convolution of the point pattern and the detection point spread function, for each object structure, a maximum of the point spread function of the wave field microscope being detectable within the detection point spread function using intensity measurements, a space between two object structures being detectable as a function of values of the maximums of the point spread function of the wave field microscope for the two object structures so as to permit the wave field microscope to measure geometric distances between the object structures.