SCANNING LASER MICROSCOPE WITH WAVEFRONT SENSOR

An enhanced resolution scanned image of an object is produced by a scanning laser microscope (10) which includes an illumination arm (14) for scanning an object (12) with a focused probe beam (22) and a detection arm (16) for receiving light from the object. The detection arm includes a detector (34) which collects and detects light from the object (12) to produce pixel data for a plurality of pixels. In addition, the detection arm includes a wavefront sensor (36) for sensing phase variations of the light from the object to produce wavefront data for scanned pixel locations. From the wavefront shape of the collected light at each pixel location, a high frequency spectrum is determined which corresponds to uncollected scattered light from small scale features of that pixel location. An enhanced resolution image of a region of interest is produced based on the high frequency spectra of the scanned pixel locations.