Patent ID: 6909542

Claim:
A laser microscope comprising: a laser light source which generates a laser beam; an optical path split portion which includes a plurality of optical path split elements with different characteristics for separating said laser beam irradiated to a sample from said laser light source and light returned from said sample, and a selection mechanism to switch the optical path split elements on an optical path; an imaging lens to converge light which is returned from said sample and separated in said optical path split portion; a spectrophotometric detection unit which obtains spectral data of said light from said sample; an optical fiber which guides said light from said sample imaged by said imaging lens to said spectrophotometric detection unit, wherein an incident end face of said fiber is arranged to a position substantially conjugate to said sample; and a transfer mechanism which moves an incident end face of said optical fiber in a plane orthogonal to an optical axis of light incident on said optical fiber, wherein a core diameter of said optical fiber is substantially equal to or smaller than a diffraction diameter (1.22×λ/NA) determined by a numerical aperture NA of light incident on the incident end face of said optical fiber and a wavelength λ.