Illuminated system for vertical fluorescent microscopy

Claim 2

A vertical illuminator for imaging a light source at a microscope objective back aperture to illuminate an object under examination through the microscope objective in fluorescent microscopy which comprises, in sequence and optical alignment along an axis, a light source, an axially-moveable positive meniscus lens I having an aspheric convex surface, a positive biconvex lens II, a negative meniscus lens III and a beam splitter for introducing light from said source into a microscope observation system, whereby an object is illuminated through said observation system.

Claim 3

The vertical illuminator according to claim 1 wherein the parameters of lens radii, designated R 1 to R 6 wherein a minus sign (-) applies to radii having their vertices on the object side of the lens, lens thicknesses, designated T 1 to T 3 , axial spaces, designated S 0 to S 6 , indices of refraction, designated ND 1 to ND 3 , and Abbe numbers, designated ν 1 to ν 3 , have the following values __________________________________________________________________________ Index of Abbe Lens Radius Thickness Space Refraction Number __________________________________________________________________________ 0.5x <S.sub.O <1.2692x R.sub.1 = 1.6461x I T.sub.1 = 0.23077x 1.52 <ND.sub.1 <1.53 √.sub.1 ≅5 8 R.sub.2 = 0.4962x S.sub.1 = 1.7308x-S.sub.0 S.sub.2 = 5.3661x R.sub.3 = -1.4511x II T.sub.2 = 0.15385x 1.51 <ND.sub.2 <1.52 √.sub.2 ≅64 R.sub.4 = 5.23x S.sub.3 = -0.7423x R.sub.5 = 1.2608x III T.sub.3 = 0.11538x 1.61 <ND.sub.3 <1.62 √.sub.3 ≅36 R.sub.6 = 4.4165x S.sub.4 + T.sub.4 + S.sub.5 + S.sub.6 __________________________________________________________________________ = 4.8461x wherein x is 23 to 29mm, and the surface of lens I having radius R 2 is an axially-symmetrical aspheric surface defined by the formula Z = cp 2 / [1 + √1-(k+1)c 2 p 2 ]+dp 4 +ep 6 +fp 8 +gp 10 having a conic coefficient k of -1 and deformation constants d, e, f and g of 0 and c=1/ R 2 and p 2 =X 2 +Y 2 where X and Y are of the off-axis co-ordinates of said surface.

Claim 4

The illumination system of claim 2 wherein x is 26mm, ND 1 = 1.523, ND 2 = 1.517, ND 3 = 1.617, ν 1 = 58.6, ν 2 = 64.5 and ν 3 = 36.4.