Building a 2p scope, 2011 edition

What’s new this year?

The original post on building a 2p scope still gets a lot of hits. Let’s revisit the topic.

Scientifica

Scientifica has been working hard on developing a kit for multiphoton imaging. It’s all based off of their minimalist, yet versatile SliceScope platform.

I’ve had the opportunity to check out their collection module and it’s really well done. The components are available for individual purchase, so if you just want to buy part of it and tack it onto something else you’ve got, they offer that flexibility. Since they sell a wide range of electrophysiology products, they can offer customized package deals to suit your needs.

The collection module shown above is a nice tight package with the PMTs, filter cube, and preamps all integrated. They really like the R9880U series. I can see why: they’re very small, with an 8 mm diameter active area, and are constructed such that incident light can approach from a wide angle. However, they are bialkali and the QE at 520nm is less than 30%. They have a GaAsP version in the works.

Their platform can be configured for slices (below, left) or in vivo (below, right).

Thorlabs

Thorlabs has made some improvements in their own software for their 2p kit, and Vijay Iyer’s ScanImage 4 will interface with the resonant scanners. I think this is an interesting starting place for custom rigs. Thorlabs has add-ons like deformable mirrors that you can purchase at a later time. There’s no conventional galvo scanning option, and since resonant galvos are not good for arbitrary line scanning, you’re pretty much locked into (fast) raster scanning. If that’s not an issue, it’s a good option. And I’m guessing they’ll have a conventional galvo scanning option at some point– they do actually sell them, all they have to do is integrate it into the software. Neither their software nor ScanImage 4 supports regular galvo scanning at this time, but at least the latter intends to add that functionality.

Till Photonics

Till Photonics has a couple of systems on offer too. First up is the 2p version of their iMIC platform. These octagonal monoliths look like they should be launched into space.

Till Photonics’ modules are popular, particularly their Yanus scan head. The heart of it is a set of Cambridge Technologies 6210s, but they have them packaged up nicely in top quality optics and an easy-to-implement module. They have modelled the nonlinearities and can squeeze a bit more scan speed out of the mirrors if you use their systems.

Next up from Till is their Intravital 2p that came out this spring.

It boasts a fairly large scan field (about 15.5 mm to a side in the focus plane, divide by your objective’s magnification to get the field of view) and a voice-coil driven z-axis with 7.5 mm of travel.

By the way, Till Photonics runs Colibri, an open source, LabVIEW-based laser scanning microscope software package. It runs off of the NI PCI-6110 board that most people use. It’s modular, uses 4 MHz sampling, and has support for cameras, motor controllers, and beam control. So you don’t have to have a Till system to try out the software. The author, Christian Seebacher, has some interesting information about the software on his website.

I’m sure there’ll be more new stuff at SfN this year… let me know if you see anything interesting.