A straightforward solution to the imaging problem consists in a scanning procedure. The microscope objective is mounted in a Piezo translation stage. The Piezo stage is fully controlled by the ADDA-converter and performs a continuous sinusoidal movement. The setting of the objective is controlled to within a resolution of 10 nm. A streaming video sequence is recorded and only the areas in focus are used to construct an overall sharp image. An excellent performance is obtained if about forty images are used for the final image construction.


The following video clip explains the feature of the Optrel image scanner.
(It requires the realplayer, a soundcard and loudspeakers. simple click on the following screendump.)

View video

you may need to download the player here