Patent ID: 8361785

Claim:
An optical instrument comprising: an excitation light source configured to provide a plurality of different excitation wavelength ranges; a plurality of reaction regions comprising at least one respective sample including a fluorescent compound, the plurality of reaction regions simultaneously illuminated by the excitation light source so as to produce a plurality of emission beams, each emission beam comprising an emission wavelength range; a beam splitter disposed to receive the emission beams from the plurality of reaction regions, the beam splitter disposed along an excitation beam path between the excitation light source and the plurality of reaction regions, and disposed along an emission beam path, wherein the beam splitter has an optical performance characterized in that light at wavelengths within each of the different excitation wavelength ranges is reflected and light at wavelengths within each of the emission wavelength ranges of the emission beams is transmitted; and a detector to detect the emission beams of the emission wavelength ranges.