Patent ID: 8054542

Claim:
A scanning laser microscope comprising: a laser light source; an acousto-optic deflector arranged in an optical path of a laser beam emitted from the laser light source, wherein the acousto-optic deflector is capable of changing a traveling direction of the laser beam by changing frequencies of acoustic waves applied to a crystal; a frequency control unit configured to simultaneously apply acoustic waves having a plurality of frequencies to the crystal of the acousto-optic deflector to split an incident laser beam into a plurality of laser beams; an objective lens configured to converge the laser beams traveling from the acousto-optic deflector to form a plurality of beam spots on a specimen; and an optical scanning device configured to two-dimensionally scan a plurality of scanning spots consisting of the beam spots on the specimen by deflecting the laser beams from the acousto-optic deflector in two directions perpendicular to each other, wherein the acousto-optic deflector, the optical scanning device, and a pupil of the objective lens are arranged at positions optically conjugate with each other.