{"id":615,"date":"2010-09-20T13:32:23","date_gmt":"2010-09-20T13:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/?p=615"},"modified":"2010-09-20T14:34:14","modified_gmt":"2010-09-20T14:34:14","slug":"lasers-for-multiphoton-microscopy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/20\/lasers-for-multiphoton-microscopy\/","title":{"rendered":"Lasers for multiphoton microscopy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Coherent just sold its 1000th Chameleon<\/a> system<\/a>. That’s roughly how many<\/a> of the similarly-priced Lamborghini Countach LP500s<\/a> were sold. That was in the 1980s. Coherent has been selling Chameleons since 2003, I think. <\/p>\n

Together with Newport Spectra-Physics’ MaiTai<\/a>, these one-box Ti:Sapphire lasers greatly reduced the technical overhead of a multiphoton microscope. No more hand tuning and re-aligning after every change in wavelength.<\/p>\n

\"MaiTai\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nature Photonics recently ran a piece<\/a> on the history of the Ti:Sapphire laser. Today, the power levels have increased, the variations have grown (e.g., bolt-on prechirpers), the tuning ranges have broadened, the prices have come down a little bit, but the duopoly is still in place.<\/p>\n

Are there any alternatives to these two companies?
\nIn some cases, yes. Here are some possibilities to consider:<\/p>\n

Fiber lasers\/Ytterbium lasers<\/h4>\n

Amplitude Systemes<\/a> (not a typo, French) sells ultrafast oscillators around 1030-1064nm (good for some RFPs) and cost about a tenth of what a Ti:Sapphire system costs. As for looks, it’s a question of taste, but they’re certainly not boring. Fianium<\/a> has similar offerings. Bonus: lower repetition rate (around 10 MHz) may allow for brighter fluorescence by decreasing triplet state occupancy (for example<\/a>).<\/p>\n

DIY lasers<\/h4>\n

Dejan Vucinic’s famous 2007 paper<\/a> described how he built his own Ytterbium-doped KY(WO4)2 (Yb:KYW) laser tuned to about 981 nm with a 113 MHz pulse rate and a 310 fs pulse width. This paper is really a tour de force in homebrew multiphoton imaging. It’s a pity that the project is “now mostly abandoned<\/a> for lack of funding and general interest in its further development”. I wish I had deeper pockets, Dejan.<\/p>\n

Kit lasers<\/h4>\n

Sciner<\/a> sells Ti:Sapphire kits with specifications that don’t look too bad really, other than low power (which is largely a function of the pump laser). I’m interested to see the stability, though. Especially when changing wavelengths. There’s no service contract, but then who cares; just replace it anytime something on it breaks.<\/p>\n

Del Mar Photonics<\/h4>\n

This is a smaller company with some interesting products: Trestles Finesse Ti:Sapphire (pdf 1<\/a>, pdf 2<\/a>), Teahupoo one-box (pdf<\/a>), a Cr:Forsterite laser at 1230-1270nm (pdf<\/a>), and fiber lasers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Used<\/h4>\n

I should note, especially given a recent post<\/a>, that both Spectra-Physics (Newport) and Coherent will sell used\/reconditioned lasers. The discounts aren’t deep, but they are enough to warrant consideration.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Footnote<\/h5>\n

Here’s an excerpt from the Nature Photonics article<\/a> mentioned above:<\/p>\n

Ti:Sapphire (Ti:Sa) was initially proposed and demonstrated as a near-infrared gain medium in 1982, and was commercialized by Spectra-Physics in 1988 with the launch of a continuous-wave laser. This was followed in 1990 by a picosecond mode-locked oscillator, and in 1991 with a femtosecond version.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Denk, Stickler and Webb’s paper<\/a> came out in 1990. They were using the picosecond model that had just been released that year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Coherent just sold its 1000th <\/a>Chameleon<\/a> system. That’s roughly how many<\/a> of the similarly-priced Lamborghini Countach LP500s<\/a> were sold. That was in the 1980s. Coherent has been selling Chameleons…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31,21,32],"class_list":["post-615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hardware","tag-equipment","tag-imaging","tag-laser"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":635,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions\/635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}