Patent ID: 7324273

Claim:
A confocal self-interference microscopy, comprising: an illumination unit including a light source; a specimen; an image detection unit for measuring an image of the specimen; a beam expanding unit including a convex lens or a concave mirror, for converting illumination beam from the illumination unit into a plane wave; a beam splitter that introduces the illumination beam from the beam expanding unit into the specimen and induces reflected or fluorescent light from the specimen into the image detection unit; a condenser located between the specimen and the beam splitter, for condensing the illumination beam from the illumination unit through the beam splitter, irradiating the condensed light onto the specimen, and converting the reflected or fluorescent light from the specimen into a plane wave, the condenser including a convex lens or a concave mirror; a self-interference optical system located between the beam splitter and the image detection unit, said self-interference optical system including a first polarizer for polarizing the reflected or fluorescent light from the specimen through the condenser and the beam splitter, a first birefringence wave plate for separating the light from the first polarizer into two beams along a polarizing direction, a second polarizer for polarizing the two beams from the first birefringence wave plate, a second birefringence wave plate for separating the two beams from the second polarizer into four beams along the polarizing direction, and a third polarizer for polarizing the four beams from the second birefringence wave plate; an iris located between the self-interference optical system and the image detection unit, for limiting a passage region of the beams that have passed through the self-interference optical system; a focusing lens located between the iris and the image detection unit, for focusing the beams from the iris, the focusing lens including a convex lens or a concave mirror; and a pin-hole aperture located on a focal plane of the focusing lens between the focusing lens and the image detection unit, wherein optic-axes of the first and second birefringence wave plates exist on the same plane, optic-axes of the first and second birefringence wave plates are inclined from an optical axis of the entire optical system at a predetermined angle, and self-interference spatial periods of the first and second birefringence wave plates are different from each other; and a relay optical system located between the self-interference optical system and the iris, for re-focusing the beam from the self-interference optical system on the iris, the relay optical system including two convex lens or concave mirrors.