| CPC G02B 27/0927 (2013.01) [G02B 19/0009 (2013.01); G02B 21/06 (2013.01); G02B 27/0916 (2013.01); G02B 27/30 (2013.01); G02B 27/425 (2013.01); G02B 27/48 (2013.01)] | 25 Claims |

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1. An apparatus, comprising:
a fiber beam source comprising one or more input fibers and configured to provide one or more input beams via the one or more input fibers, wherein each of the one or more input fibers has a substantially rectangular cross-section at an exit face;
a collimator at an input end positioned to receive an input beam from the fiber beam source and to produce a substantially collimated beam;
a beam shaping group comprising one or more optical elements and positioned to receive the substantially collimated beam from the collimator and format the substantially collimated beam into a shaped propagation beam having a substantially rectangular cross-section in a far field; and
a focusing objective stage including an objective pupil for receiving the shaped propagation beam and positioned to transform the shaped propagation beam into a substantially rectangular cross-section sampling beam at or near a focal plane of the focusing objective stage for optically probing a sample.
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