The object of the invention is to provide a method and a device for characterizing microscopic elements, which is both reliable and inexpensive and which gives good results when there is a large number of elements to be characterized. For this purpose, the invention proposes chopping the source signal (12, 120) by means of MOEMS microsystems (200) based on optoelectromechanical elements (220), thereby generating novel options for the modulation, especially temporal modulation, of excitation signals. More precisely, one subject of the invention is a method of characterizing microscopic elements consisting in particular in propagating a dispersed lamp source signal (12, 120), in spatially chopping the spectrum of the source signal (12, 120) into at least two excitation signals (18, 180) having predetermined wavelengths λi, in encoding the excitation signals (18, 180), in focusing the excitation signals (18, 180), so as to generate a probe signal (28, 280) propagated towards a measurement zone (30, 300), and in analyzing an interaction signal (32, 320) deriving from the interaction of the probe signal (28, 280) with the microscopic elements that are located in the measurement space (30, 300). The spatial chopping of the light source signal spectrum is carried out by a MOEMS microsystem (200) based on optoelectromechanical elements (220).