READING DEVICE OF FLUORESCENT PATTERN

摘要

PURPOSE:To make it possible to read a very weak fluorescent pattern with high sensitivity by a construction wherein a light source emitting an exciting light is provided at a position whereat the exciting light refracted through glass plates passes through a gel and turns to be an optical path wherein a fluorescent substance is excited. CONSTITUTION:An exciting light for a fluorescent substance emitted from a light source enters the end parts of glass plates 5b and 5c. The exciting light having entered is refracted through the glass plates and the refracted exciting light passes through a gel/5a and turns to be an optical path 61 wherein a fluorescent substance is excited. The exciting light entering the gel irradiates the gel 5a of a sample tagged by the fluorescent substance. Since the refractive index of the glass plates 5a and 5b is larger than the refractive index of the gel 5a, the optical path of the incident light from the end parts of the glass plates 5b and 5c is set so that the light from the light source gets out of the glass plates 5b and 5c at an angle being near a critical angle whereat the light advances from the glass side to the gel 5a. According to this constitution, the exciting light advances along the gel 5a in parallel with the glass plates 5b and 5c substantially and a very weak fluorescent pattern can be read with high sensitivity.