KIT FOR CONVERTING A STANDARD MICROSCOPE INTO, AND DESIGN FOR, A SINGLE APERTURE CONFOCAL SCANNING EPI-ILLUMINATION MICROSCOPE

摘要

A microscope design for, and a kit to convert a standard epi-illumination microscope into a single aper­ture confocal scanning epi-illumination microscope com­prises an assembly including, in one embodiment, a pair of intermediate lenses (28, 32) to create a second field plane (70) conjugate to the specimen plane (68) in both the incident and reflected light paths, with a single aper­ture positioned at this second conjugate field plane and controllably scanned through the plane to create the inci­dent light beam as well as to mask the returning light be­fore viewing. In a second embodiment, only a single lens (128) is included in the assembly and the objective lens may be positioned at its correct tube length, or a non-­standard objective lens (152) may be used to prevent un­desired degradation of the image. This assembly conveni­ently mounts to the nosepiece of the standard microscope in place of the objective lens, and the objective lens mounts to the assembly.