Olympus 10x for two-photon microscopy
Posted in Hardware
Olympus released a suite of new objectives this year, and one of them is this 10x/0.6 NA. This is probably the longest focal length (180/10 = 18 mm) objective you can get and use with a…
Tag: optics
A Canadian open source two-photon microscope system
Posted in Hardware
This open source two-photon microscope system is adaptable for both slice (with substage detection) and in vivo experiments, and is built with largely COTS parts. The paper is a very nice resource.
See also, designs…
Lenses and lenses and lenses and lenses
Posted in Tips
Can anyone suggest a nice way to store lenses? Ideas about storage containers and cabinets, and ideas about overall organization are all welcome.
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Notes from Austin Blanco
Posted in Tips
Our friend Christian Wilms tipped us to Austin Blanco’s blog, which has some posts you all might be interested in:
Characterizing unknown optical components
A few notes on Arduinos, their timers, and using them with…
Reminder: SfN Short Course
Posted in Tips
If you like Labrigger, you should register for this Short Course at the SfN meeting.
Short Course #1: Advances in Multineuronal Monitoring of Brain Activity
Spencer Smith will be talking about the work SLAB…
Custom scan optics for two-photon imaging
Adrian Negrean, in Huibert Mansvelder’s lab, has been designing and building custom scan optics for two-photon imaging and earlier this year published his work (paper). Labrigger wants to emphasize how nice this paper is. It’s an…
Drop-in cage system from Newport
Posted in Hardware
Newport has expanded their cage system offerings. We’ve teased them in the past, but this looks nice. Thorlabs has a few components that can be dropped into a completed cage system,…
Abbe Diffraction setup
Posted in Hardware
Kurt Thorn shared the parts list for his Abbe diffraction setup. He describes how to use it in his blog post, but you can also check out his talk.
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Optomechanics and microscopy technical notes – many items
Posted in Hardware
Vojnovic’s group at Oxford has dozens of technical notes. Most are concise, and include software code, if applicable. SolidWorks files and PCB files are available on request.
Here are a few examples:
Lightglass Optics – used optomechanics
Lightglass Optics sells surplus optomechanics and other related optics. They have a lot of Newport products, and small amounts of products from Thorlabs, OptoSigma, New Focus, and Line Tool.
For example, here’s an Newport X-Y stage…
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Over 100 DIY pieces of lab equipment
Posted in Hardware
Labrigger previously mentioned this contest. All of the 173 projects are online for your perusal. See if any of them inspire you.
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Damage thresholds and Ti:Sapph lasers
Posted in Hardware
Recently, a moderately expensive optical element got fried at Labrigger. During the postmortem, we revisited our power and energy calculations, and our LIDT (laser intensity damage threshold) calculations.
LIDT calculations remind me of radiation-health physics (e.g.,…
Thorlabs’ 0.26 GB catalog
Posted in Uncategorized
Thorlabs released a ridiculously sized (264 MB) PDF catalog for their life sciences imaging. Despite the size, I recommend downloading it and checking it out. There are several items and lots of product details that are…
Autocorrelator for under $5k
Posted in Hardware
Autocorrelators can be used to measure the pulse width of ultrafast lasers. This can be useful for troubleshooting dispersion in your 2-photon imaging system and generally troubleshooting laser issues. They are big ticket items and often cost…
Actually, a pretty good sale
This isn’t an advertisement. I wasn’t asked to post this. I just want to let you all know in case it’s useful. Newport is having a sale on optics and many of the discounts are pretty…