Patent ID: 7817269

Claim:
A method for determining a spatial structure of an object by means of fluorescence spectroscopy, having the following steps: a) selecting the object in such a way that it contains at least one suitable substance that can be excited to emit electromagnetic radiation by electromagnetic radiation, the distribution of this substance in the object being detected; b) coupling an excitation beam into the object in such a way as to yield spatial regions with different excitation intensities in the object; c) selecting the wavelength range of the excitation beam in such a way that the excitation beam can excite the substance to emit; d) changing the intensity of the excitation beam so as to yield temporal transients of the emission of electromagnetic radiation by the substance; e) matching the substance and the wavelength range of the excitation in such a way that after a change in the intensity of the excitation beam the temporal transients of the emission of electromagnetic radiation are a function of the respective intensity of the excitation beam; f) measuring the time profile of the transients after a change in the intensity of the excitation beam; g) determining different patterns for the time profile of different transients for individual values of the excitation intensity; h) adapting the patterns to the measured transient of the emission by means of different amplitudes; i) determining the amplitude of that pattern which corresponds to the excitation intensity in said spatial region of interest, wherein the amplitude determined in such a way is taken as a measure of the concentration of the substance in the spatial region of interest; and j) coupling the excitation beam into the object in a spatially changed fashion until the spatial structure of at least parts of the object is determined.