Patent ID: 7400409

Claim:
A coherence microscope including: a light source ( 1 ) emitting time-incoherent light, a divider ( 3 ) for dividing the light emitted by the light source ( 1 ) into measurement light which is supplied to a specimen ( 13 ) and reflected thereby, and reference light; a point light source emitting the measurement light onto the specimen ( 13 ) and at least one confocal aperture member; a microscope optical system ( 28 ) for focusing the measurement light on the specimen ( 13 ) and for focusing the measurement light reflected by the specimen on the at least one confocal aperture member, wherein the aperture of the at least one confocal aperture member is so selected that the depth extent of the confocal zone substantially corresponds to the depth stroke of the coherence microscope; a superimposition device ( 25 , 31 ) for spatially superimposing the measurement light reflected by the specimen ( 13 ) with the reference light; and a sensor line ( 41 ) including a predetermined number of sensor elements for detecting the light resulting from the superimposition, the predetermined number of sensor elements being selected so a read-out rate of at least 60 kHz is achieved; wherein the superimposition device has an emission device ( 25 , 31 ) for emitting the measurement light and the reference light which is adapted and arranged relative to the sensor line ( 41 ) such that extensive irradiation at least of a part of the sensor line ( 41 ) with superimposed light is effected and the ratio of the distances covered by the measurement light and the reference light from the emission device ( 25 , 31 ) to the respective impingement point on the sensor line ( 41 ) varies in the portion of the sensor line ( 41 ), that is irradiated with superimposed light.