Patent ID: 7304280

Claim:
A laser line scanning microscope comprising: spot illumination means for providing an illumination beam for the illumination of a sample in the form of a line, a wide-field illumination source for illuminating the sample with wide-field illumination, scanning means for guiding the illumination beam in the form of a line over the sample so as to scan the sample, and for achieving spatial resolution by sampling of the sample both with illumination in the form of a line from the spot illumination means and with wide-field illumination from the wide-field illumination source, spot detector means including at least two spectral channels and a detector unit associated with each of the spectral channels for imaging, via the scanning means, the sample area illuminated by the spot illumination means and by the wide-field illumination source onto the detector units of different spectral channels, and control means for controlling the scanning means during the operation of the wide-field illumination source and for controlling the spot detector means for reading out the spectral channels of the detector means for obtaining an image of the sample subject to wide-field illumination.