Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopes

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Confocal laser scanning microscopy improves the resolution that is obtained in wide-field illumination techniques by incorporating a pinhole at the focal plane of the lens. By doing so, out-of-focus light is eliminated, increasing the optical resolution (mainly along the depth of the sample) as well as the contrast. As such, this point-by-point imaging technique also allows optical sectioning of thick specimens, resulting in a better understanding of topologically complex materials by means of a three-dimensional reconstruction. In our lab, confocal imaging is used for several applications such as, cell biology, expansion microscopy,… and visual characterization of perovskites. To facilitate a large number of users, the lab is equipped with two FV1000 setups from Olympus.

 

Details of the setups:

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Both confocal setup are motorized inverted system microscopes, Olympus IX81 (IX2 Series), with a motorized condenser for brightfield, phase contrast and interference contrast measurements. The Prior ProScanTM III stage has been included into the system to allow automation control over the microscope. An integrated laser combiner provides multiple excitation laser lines (375, 405, 440, 445, 488, 515, 532, 559, 561 and 635 nm). Various objective lenses (4x to 100x, NA: 0.16 to 1.4) can be utilized for image optimization, depending on the sample. Live cell imaging is also possible with the inclusion of an incubator, allowing to control temperature and CO2 flow control.

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Multi Color Widefield microscope

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This custom build widefield setup allows to do several types of microscopy, such as, regular widefield imaging, TIRF, PALM, dSTORM and SOFI. Apart from this robust system a lot of inhouse materials are present (filters, dichroic mirrors, mountable lasers, objectives…). This allows experiment-specific modification for state of the art data acquisition. Because of the presence of several lasers and sensitive detectors, there is the possibility to use one or more fluorophores and to do Multi Color imaging.

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Details of the setup:

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The setup consists of an inverted microscope body (IX83, Olympus) with a set of oil immersion lenses. As an excitation source the setup has several lasers of different wavelengths (405, 488, 491, 514, 532, 561 and 640 nm). The whole optical path can be adapted based on the requirements of the experiment. For the detection there are two electron-multiplying charge-coupled device cameras.

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