| CPC G02B 21/0032 (2013.01) [G02B 21/0048 (2013.01); G02B 21/0076 (2013.01)] | 26 Claims |

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1. Apparatus for manipulating a focus of excitation light on or in a sample, particularly in a microscope, comprising
a light source for emitting excitation light,
an excitation beam path for guiding the excitation light onto or into the sample, the excitation beam path comprising an objective for guiding the excitation light onto or into the sample and a wavefront modulator for modulating the excitation light,
and a control device for driving the wavefront modulator,
wherein
the control device is designed for driving the wavefront modulator to generate a number of shaped waves on or in the sample,
that a focus is generated at a specified location on or in the sample by superposition of the shaped waves and
that, for manipulating the location of the focus on or in the sample, a device for imposing variably stepped phase shifts upon the shaped waves is present, where the phase shifts imposed in each case on the shaped waves change stepwise between different shaped waves.
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