Miniaturized optically imaging system with high lateral and axial resolution
First Claim
1. A miniaturized optically imaging system with high lateral and axial resolution for endomicroscopic applications, comprising:
- at least one GRIN lens system with radial refractive index profile which generates a microscopic optical imaging of near-surface areas of an object in an image plane for an optical transmission system with a small diameter compared to the transmission length;
a refractive plano-convex lens in the form of a homogeneous optical spherical lens element being provided and, together with the GRIN optics, forms an optical system;
a plane side of the spherical lens element defining a plane entrance surface of the optical system, said plane entrance surface being oriented orthogonal to an optical axis common to both the optical system and a downstream transmission system;
said spherical lens element being followed by a first GRIN lens for reducing divergence of a highly divergent light bundle from the spherical lens element; and
a second GRIN lens for adapting the light bundle transmitted by the first GRIN lens to the aperture and object field of said downstream transmission system being arranged along the optical axis downstream of the first GRIN lens.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The invention is directed to a miniaturized optically imaging system with high lateral and axial resolution for endomicroscopic applications. To provide a miniaturized optical head which permits an appreciable increase in photon efficiency with high lateral and axial spatial resolution compared to conventional GRIN optics the plane side of a refractive, plano-convex, homogeneous lens defines a plane entrance surface of the optical system, and first and second GRIN lenses are arranged along the optical axis orthogonal to the entrance surface, wherein the first GRIN lens being arranged downstream of the refractive lens for reducing the divergence of the highly divergent light bundle transmitted from the object through the refractive lens, and the second GRIN lens being provided for adapting the light bundle transmitted by the first GRIN lens to the aperture and object field size of the downstream transmission system.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A miniaturized optically imaging system with high lateral and axial resolution for endomicroscopic applications, comprising:
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at least one GRIN lens system with radial refractive index profile which generates a microscopic optical imaging of near-surface areas of an object in an image plane for an optical transmission system with a small diameter compared to the transmission length; a refractive plano-convex lens in the form of a homogeneous optical spherical lens element being provided and, together with the GRIN optics, forms an optical system; a plane side of the spherical lens element defining a plane entrance surface of the optical system, said plane entrance surface being oriented orthogonal to an optical axis common to both the optical system and a downstream transmission system; said spherical lens element being followed by a first GRIN lens for reducing divergence of a highly divergent light bundle from the spherical lens element; and a second GRIN lens for adapting the light bundle transmitted by the first GRIN lens to the aperture and object field of said downstream transmission system being arranged along the optical axis downstream of the first GRIN lens. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A miniaturized optically imaging system for endomicroscopic applications, comprising:
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at least one GRIN lens system with radial refractive index profile which generates an optical imaging of near-surface areas of an object in an image plane for an optical transmission system with a small diameter compared to the transmission length; first GRIN lens being provided for reducing the divergence of the highly divergent light bundle from the object; a second GRIN lens being arranged along the optical axis downstream of the first GRIN lens for adapting a light bundle transmitted from the first GRIN lens to the aperture and object field size of a downstream transmission system; said first GRIN lens defining a plane entrance surface of the optical system comprising the first GRIN lens and second GRIN lens; said entrance surface being oriented orthogonal to an optical axis common to the optical system and to the transmission system; and a diffractive lens being provided between the first GRIN lens and the second GRIN lens for correcting the chromatic aberration of the optical system.
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Specification