Patent ID: 7365344

Claim:
A scanning fluorescent microscope, comprising: a light source which irradiates a sample with an exciting light pulse; a splitter which splits fluorescent photons emitted from the sample excited by the exciting light pulse into at least a first group and a second group; a first detector which detects the fluorescent photons of the first group; a second detector which detects the fluorescent photons of the second group; a first counter which counts a number of fluorescent photons detected by the first detector; a second counter which counts a number of fluorescent photons detected by the second detector; a first correcting unit which performs a predetermined correction to the number of fluorescent photons counted by the first counter; a second correcting unit which performs the predetermined correction to the number of fluorescent photons counted by the second counter; an adder which adds the numbers of fluorescent photons corrected by the first and second correcting units; and an operating unit which calculates a fluorescent lifetime based on data output from the adder.