METHOD AND DEVICE FOR DETERMINING A DISTANCE, AN AUTOFOCUS MODULE, MICROSCOPE AND METHOD FOR AUTO-FOCUSSING A MICROSCOPE

摘要

The invention relates to a method for determining the distance between a reference plane and an internal or external optical defining surface of an object. Said method comprises the following steps: producing a collimated light beam (18); injecting the collimated light beam into a lens system which is made of an objective lens (10) and a tubus lens (12) as is the case in a microscope, such that the collimated light beam is emitted in a transversal manner onto the tubus lens; detecting the position of the light beam (38) emitted by the tubus lens reflected by a first internal or external optical defining surface of an object; producing a first signal characterising the position; determining the distance between a reference plane and the first defining surface quantitively and in terms of the direction of the first signal. The invention also relates to a device for carrying out said method and use thereof for determining a surface profile of an especially metal object, autofocus-module, microscope and method for auto-focussing a microscope.