Patent ID: 7468837

Claim:
A wide-field microscope comprising: a stage configured to hold a specimen having a fluorescent material therein; a multi-photon excitation light source configured to produce a beam of excitation light with predetermined pulse spreading characteristics and having a single photon energy less than an absorption energy required for single photon excitation of said fluorescent material; an infinity corrected objective optically coupled to the multi-photon excitation light source and configured to focus the beam of excitation light onto the specimen such that multi-photon excitation of the fluorescent material simultaneously occurs over a predetermined area of the specimen corresponding to at least two pixels of an image detector of the wide-field microscope without scanning the beam over the predetermined area; and a focus lens configured to focus emission light emitted from said predetermined area of the specimen onto the at least two pixels of an image detector simultaneously without scanning the beam over the predetermined area.