Patent ID: 7808701

Claim:
A microscope apparatus comprising: a spatial modulator that receives an irradiation light beam to form diffracted light beams in a first mode; an objective optical system that, in the first mode, causes the diffracted light beams to interfere with each other on a sample to form an interference fringe, the objective optical system forming an image of the sample being modulated by the interference fringe on a surface of the spatial modulator; a first image pickup means; and a first relay optical system that forms an image of the sample being re-modulated by the surface of the spatial modulator on an image plane of the first image pickup means, wherein, in a second mode, a light separation means and, in the first mode, a reflecting member is disposed in the objective optical system, each being able to be selectively inserted in and removed from an optical path, and a direction in which a light from the sample travels in the second mode with the light separation means inserted in the optical path differs from a direction in which light from the sample travels in the first mode with the reflecting member inserted in the optical path.