| 摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a super-resolution microscope that enables desired spatial resolving power to be easily obtained without causing reduction in detection sensitivity.SOLUTION: A super-resolution microscope comprises: an illumination optical system that condenses first illumination light for exciting a molecule from a stable state to a first quantum state and second illumination light for transition of the molecule to other quantum state, onto a specimen in a manner that these lights are partially and spatially overlapped with each other, and irradiates the specimen with the first illumination light and the second illumination light; a scanning unit that scans the specimen by relatively displacing the first and second illumination lights and the specimen; a detection unit that detects an optical signal emitted from the specimen by irradiation of the first illumination light and the second illumination light; and a phase plate that is disposed on an optical path through which the first illumination light and the second illumination light of the illumination optical system pass, and has a plurality of M pieces of surface areas where phase modulation is performed to at least a part of the second illumination light. The phase plate is composed of an optical thin film of a single layer having the plurality of M pieces of surface areas formed on an optical substrate in a thickness satisfying a predetermined conditional expression. |
