Abstract: A confocal optical scanner which realizes optical scanning without nonuniformity of brightness at the inside and outside periperies of the pinhole disk by arraying the pinholes along spiral tracks at the same pitch; which allows adjustment of decentering to be readily performed by disposing pinholes so that stripes do not occur even when decentering is large; which allows more incident light to be collected at the pinholes through a plurality of collector elements by disposing the pinholes at focal points of the collector elements; which improves luminous utilization efficacy by reducing the illumination area of light by adopting the collector elements to focus outside of the aperture pupil; which prevents decrease of confocal resolution due to pinhole diameter by causing the light reflected from the sample to not enter a collector disk; and which reduces stray light from the pinhole disk by covering non-collector portions of the collector disk with a shading film.

Abstract: The invention relates to an optical beam divider which subdivides a beam (A), more particularly a laser beam, into at least two beams (B, C) which differ from the original beam (A) only in intensity. To this end the beam divider has a deflecting mirror (2) which is disposed in the path of the beam (A) and which rotates around an axis lying perpendicular to the plane of the mirror and has at least one window (2c) which sweeps the whole cross-section of the beam (A) when the deflecting mirror (2) rotates.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for simulating atmospheric scintillation includes a scintillation disk and a motor for rotating the disk at a substantially high speed. The disk has a dense varied pattern of substantially small closely spaced holes. The holes have different sizes and are arranged with a spatial distribution that is gaussian in amplitude and poisson distributed in separation. The motor can spin the disk to produce desired temporal variations as energy from the energy source passes through the holes of the disk.

Abstract: In a slit lamp microscope, changeover can be selectively made between conventional slit lamp microscopy and confocal perforated disk microscopy. In slit lamp operation, the microscope is constructed as a stereo microscope. The Nipkow perforated disk required for the confocal perforated disk microscopy is arranged in an indirect beam path. Alternatively, the Nipkow disk can be arranged on a pivotable support element and can be pivoted into the beam path in the vicinity of an intermediate image plane. For confocal perforated disk microscopy, an additional illumination device is provided that is reflected into the beam path between the Nipkow disk and the oculars. The insertion of the Nipkow disk or the switching of the beam paths takes place such that the focal plane of the objective is constant. A changeover is made from conventional slit lamp microscopy to confocal perforated disk microscopy without refocusing. A direct comparison of the images observed with the two procedures is therefore possible.

Abstract: An improved method and apparatus for easily and accurately aligning confocal tandem scanning reflected light microscopes having scanning disc hole diameters as small as 20 microns are described. The method involves the observation and analysis of Moire and other patterns of light occurring within the microscope, and using the apparatus to make very sensitive adjustments that result in a fully aligned, rugged, and stable confocal tandem scanning reflected light microscope offering improved resolution, contrast, and optical slicing capability.

Abstract: A mechanical apparatus to provide pulses of light for tanning. One embodiment of the apparatus comprises a light source radiating light; a hollow cylinder having an inner and an outer cylindrical surface and an axis, the hollow cylinder having at least one opening through the inner to the outer cylindrical surface, the light source being inside the hollow cylinder, at least some of the light radiating from the light source passing through the at least one opening in the hollow cylinder; an apparatus to axially rotate the hollow cylinder; and, a surface having an opening therethrough. As the hollow cylinder is axially rotated, at least some of the light radiating from the light source passing through the at least one opening in the hollow cylinder will come into light communication with the opening in the surface and pass therethrough, thereby creating a pulse of light. Another embodiment incorporates at least two counter rotating cylinders which are coaxially aligned around a light source.

Abstract: A confocal microscope comprises a focusing lens for focusing a light source onto a pin hole. The use of the lens for this purpose, when used within a confocal microscope apparatus, greatly reduces image artifacts and creates an increased transfer efficiently between the light source and the sample.

Abstract: A stereoscopic tandem scanning reflected light confocal microscope employs longitudinal and transverse chromatic aberration in conjunction with color dispersion prisms in a binocular eyepiece assembly to provide a three dimensional vertical view through a specimen.

Abstract: An improved aperture for a scanning microscope as is used to mask either or both of the incident light and reflected light includes a plurality of continuous curvilinear slits spaced evenly about a common origin, each of which approximates an Archimedes' spiral emanating from the origin centered on the aperture. There are two embodiments of the invention disclosed, both of which have a true Archimedes' spiral to define the inner edge of the continuous slit. In a first embodiment, the outer edge is defined as having a constant proportional circumferential aperture distance from the inner spiral. In the second embodiment, the outer edge is defined as another Archimedes' spiral having a constant offset of minimum distance from the inner spiral. However, the outer edges of the two embodiments essentially merge in a physical sense after only several of the inner revolutions of the continuous slit so that the continuous slit of either embodiment provides an image having uniform masking and uniform resolution.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for scanning a specimen with an aperture of a confocal scanning microscope at speeds slower than "flicker fusion" includes an aperture disc with an optical timing sync track around its periphery with an infrared LED and photodetector for sensing the position of the sync track and, hence, the aperture disk for controlling the position and scanning speed thereof. By scanning at speeds slower than those typically used, improvement of the quality of the image is attained. An optimum scanning speed given the limits of the video camera is to scan at a speed which exposes each portion of the specimen for the full image acquisition time of the video camera. Further enhancement of the image can be attained by using an image processor with a frame buffer for storing the image as it is acquired along with adjusting the gain and black level controls of the video camera to block out backscatter off the aperture which greatly enhances the signal-to-noise ratio.

Abstract: An improved real-time confocal scanning microscope, and an improved perforated disk for use in such microscope. A preferred embodiment of the inventive microscope includes a polarizing beamsplitting cube and a rotatable Nipkow disk perforted with a hexagonal hole pattern. The disk is preferably mounted so that the scan lines produced as the disk rotates will cross both the sample feature to be imaged and the sensor array in the system's video camera at an angle substantially equal to 45 degrees. This disk orientation ensures that brightness variations caused by a non-uniform scan will not affect the measurements. Rotation of the disk is preferably synchronized with the camera frame rate to prevent any scan errors from causing random (frame to frame) variations in the camera output. The polarizing beamsplitting cube consists of two triangular prisms connected (i.e., cemented) together by a dielectric film.