Tag: optics

50% off at Edmund Optics

If you’re like most people, you can get the vast majority of your holiday shopping done at Edmund Optics. They’re having a Cyber Monday sale this Monday, November 26th. Use code Cyber12 at checkout.

Here’s the…



Scientifica’s 2p scope

With its newly introduced scan head, Scientifica’s 2p scope is finally a complete package. They’re happy to sell their modular design in pieces, so this fills the void between fully custom rigs and turnkey systems.

The…



A custom two photon scope on a wall



Whole embryo imaging

Drosophila embryos are a fraction of a square mm, and go from fertilization to hatching (as a larva) in about 22 hrs. So it’s possible to image individual embryos in their…



Introducing the Spectrino

The Open Hardware wave keeps rolling: MySpectral recently announced the Spectrino – an Arduino based spectrometer. It’s as barebones as spectrometers go, with the small enclosure containing a diffraction grating, CCD light…



Cage systems

Cage systems, like optical rails, are platforms for constructing custom optical systems.

Thorlabs’ 16 mm, 30 mm, and 60 mm cage systems are well known (shown above)….



Clearing tissue for imaging: index matching is not new

The main factor that limits how deep we can image into tissue is the scattering of light. Multiphoton imaging partially mitigates the problem by using infrared light, which scatter less, and by using an…



TIRF teaching materials

Next time you’re explaining TIRF to someone, start off by showing them this piece of artwork. (Arndt von Scheidt, source)



Thorlabs’ SM2 fits Nikon lenses

Fun fact for the day:…



Structured Illumination, pt. 2

This is a long post. If you’re in a rush, then just read these first two paragraphs.

One of the early posts on this blog was about …



Online tools of questionable usefulness

While on the Gnotero page (a Python app for accessing refs from Zotero, a Firefox plugin-based citation manager, in case you’re wondering), I…



More MATLAB code for 2p scope design

In the last post, I mentioned how the “minification” factor (the diameter of the PMT detector divided by the diameter…



MATLAB code for designing collection optics for 2p scopes

The Tsai book chapter from Ron Frostig’s CRC book is a great resource for building your own 2p microscope. In…



Fiber optic termination

Fiber optics must be terminated properly in order to permit high transmission. If you’re making your own, get a proper fiber cleaver and a set of polishing sheets. Here are…



CAD-based optomechanics mock-ups

I use SolidWorks to design custom parts for my rigs. Many times, these parts mate with existing Thorlabs parts. Fortunately, Thorlabs offers SolidWorks files that can be directly…