Optical transmission system for correcting image errors and microscope with such a transmission system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10048478-B2
Application number	US-201415036582-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 13, 2014
Priority date	Nov 15, 2013
Publication date	Aug 14, 2018
Grant date	Aug 14, 2018

Abstract

An optical transmission system configured to image a selected region of a sample arranged in a first medium in an object plane on or in a sample carrier, which includes plane-parallel plate, from the object plane into an intermediate image plane in a second medium. The plane-parallel plate is located between the optical transmission system and the sample during the imaging. The object plane and the intermediate image plane form an angle between 0° and 90° with an optical axis of the transmission system. The optical transmission system is positioned relative to region of the sample such that the sample is located within the focal length of the lens of the optical transmission system closest to the sample. The intermediate image plane and the object plane are located on the same side of the optical transmission system, and the intermediate image is a virtual image.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An optical transmission system comprising:
at least one lens;
wherein the optical transmission system is configured to image a selected region of a sample, when the sample is arranged in a first medium in an object plane on or in a sample carrier that is formed at least partially by a plane-parallel plate located between the optical transmission system and the selected region of the sample, from the object plane into an intermediate image plane in a second medium;
wherein the optical transmission system is configured to image the selected region of the sample so that each of the object plane and the intermediate image plane forms an angle between 0° and 90° with an optical axis of the transmission system; and
wherein the optical transmission system is configured to be positioned relative to the selected region of the sample, during the imaging of the selected region, such that the selected region of the sample is located within a focal length of the at least one lens of the optical transmission system, and the intermediate image plane and the object plane are located on a same side of the optical transmission system.

2. The optical transmission system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
exactly two rotationally symmetrical lenses.

3. The optical transmission system according to claim 1 ;
wherein the optical system is configured such that it images the selected region of the sample with a magnification M=n 1 /n 2 ·ξ, where:
n 1 is a refractive index of the first medium;
n 2 is a refractive index of the second medium; and
ξ is a freely selectable factor between 0.5 and 2.

4. The optical transmission system according to claim 3 ;
wherein factor ξ is equal to 1 so that the optical transmission system is configured to image the selected region of the sample in an object-preserving manner.

5. A microscope for imaging a region of a sample arranged in a first medium in an object plane on or in a sample carrier which is formed at least partially as plane-parallel plate, comprising:
the optical transmission system according to claim 1 ; and
at least one microscope objective that is configured to image out of or into the intermediate image plane in the second medium;
wherein an optical axis of the at least one microscope objective is configured to extend perpendicular to the intermediate image plane; and
wherein the at least one microscope objective configured to focus on the intermediate image plane.

6. The microscope according to claim 5 ;
wherein a numerical aperture NA M of the at least one microscope objective is not higher than a numerical aperture NA O of the optical transmission system.

7. The microscope according to claim 5 ;
wherein a region between the at least one lens of the optical transmission system and the plane-parallel plate is filled with a third medium as immersion medium for the optical transmission system.

8. The microscope according to claim 7 ;
wherein the first medium and the third medium are immersion media; and
wherein the second medium is air.

9. The microscope according to claim 5 , further comprising:
a holder configured to receive and fix the optical transmission system relative to a stand, a sample stage, the sample carrier, or a combination thereof.

10. The microscope according to claim 5 ;
wherein the at least one microscope objective is configured as a dry objective.

11. The microscope according to claim 5 ;
wherein an angle formed by the optical axis of the at least one microscope objective and the optical axis of the optical transmission system is configured to be freely adjustable.

12. The microscope according to claim 5 ;
wherein the optical axis of the at least one microscope objective forms an angle not equal to zero with the optical axis of the optical transmission system; and
wherein the at least one microscope objective is rotatable, with respect to the optical transmission system, around the optical axis of the optical transmission system.

13. The microscope according to claim 5 ;
wherein the microscope is configured as light sheet microscope;
wherein the at least one microscope objective comprises:
an illumination objective configured to illuminate the sample with a light sheet; and
a detection objective configured to detect light which is emitted from the region of the sample;

wherein optical axes of the illumination objective and detection objective form an angle, with respect to each other, not equal to zero.

14. The microscope according to claim 13 ;
wherein each of the optical axes of the illumination objective, of the optical transmission system, and of the detection objective lies in a plane.

15. The microscope according claim 13 ;
wherein the optical axis of the detection objective is fixed relative to the optical axis of the optical transmission system; and
wherein the illumination objective is rotatable, relative to the detection objective, around the optical axis of the detection objective.

16. The microscope according to claim 13 , further comprising:
a third microscope objective;
wherein the optical axis of the illumination objective defines a first plane with the optical axis of the optical transmission system;
wherein the optical axis of the detection objective defines a second plane with the optical axis of the transmission system;
an optical axis of the third microscope objective defines a third plane with the optical axis of the optical transmission system;
wherein the second plane intersects the first plane at a predetermined angle; and
wherein the third plane intersects each of the first plane and second plane at a predetermined angle.

17. The microscope according to claim 13 , further comprising:
an objective turret at which the illumination objective and the detection objective are arranged, and at which a further microscope objective is arranged;
wherein the microscope is configured to be operated, in a first position of the objective turret in which the illumination objective and the detection objective are swiveled into the beam path, in a first operating mode as light sheet microscope; and
wherein the microscope is configured to be operated, in a second position in which only the further microscope objective is swiveled into the beam path, in a second operating mode different from the first operating mode.

18. The microscope according to claim 17 ;
wherein an optical axis of the further microscope objective coincides with the optical axis of the optical transmission system when the further microscope objective is swiveled into the beam path.

19. The optical transmission system according to claim 2 ;
wherein at least one of the two rotationally symmetrical lenses is provided with an aspherically shaped surface.

20. The optical transmission system according to claim 3 ;
wherein a numerical aperture of the optical transmission system is set to provide an opening angle of at least 75°.

21. The microscope according to claim 16 ;
wherein the optical axes of the illumination objective, the detection objective, and the third microscope objective are perpendicular to one another in pairs.

22. The microscope according to claim 5 , further comprising:
wherein the microscope is configured as light sheet microscope;
wherein the at least on microscope objective comprises:
a first microscope objective; and
a second microscope objective; and
a third microscope objective;

wherein the microscope fur

Assignees

• Zeiss Carl Microscopy Gmbh

Inventors

• Degen Artur
• Gölles Michael
• Siebenmorgen Jörg
• Lippert Helmut
• Kalkbrenner Thomas
• Kleppe Ingo
• Wald Matthias
• Wittig Lars-Christian
• Singer Wolfgang
• Wolleschensky Ralf

Classifications

• G02B21/0032 Primary

  Optical details of illumination, e.g. light-sources, pinholes, beam splitters, slits, fibers (G02B21/0036 - G02B21/008; means for illumination of specimens in general G02B21/06) · CPC title

• G02B21/0052

  Optical details of the image generation · CPC title

• G02B21/02

  Objectives · CPC title

• G02B21/34

  Microscope slides, e.g. mounting specimens on microscope slides · CPC title

• G02B27/0025

  for optical correction, e.g. distorsion, aberration · CPC title