Patent ID: 7792570

Claim:
A microscopy apparatus comprising: a heating source configured to provide a pulse of heating energy focused on a target area to generate energy sufficient to heat the target area sufficiently to generate motion of particles in the target area without generating acoustic waves to a region surrounding the target area; a measuring source configured to provide a measuring light beam focused on the target; a coherent confocal microscopy assembly configured to focus the measuring light beam on the target while the particles are in motion and configured to return a Doppler-shifted reflected signal from the target; a detection assembly configured to receive the reflected signal from the target and configured to detect the Doppler shift of the reflected signal; and a controller in communication with the heating source and the measuring source and the detection system, that is configured to provide the measuring light beam spanning the duration of the pulse from the heating source, and to determine the Doppler shift in conjunction with the detection assembly to provide image data of the target.