an apparatus and method in which illumination light and collected emitted light share a pathway and subsequently are physically separated . the optical configuration is designed such that at the point of separation , the illumination light is at has a smaller cross sectional area than the collected light . collected light is directed away from the pathway of the illumination light and to detection optics . this configuration is adaptable to illumination and light collection across a broad wavelength spectrum . this configuration is adaptable to scanning in a limited depth of field to allow high throughput optical analysis of samples .