Hi, Esteban - Echoing Steve's and others' comments, I would strongly advise
you to NOT send your scanhead back to Germany for an IR to UV change. It
will be costly and you will be without your scanhead AND microscope during
that time. At least, that's how we had to do it. We did not swap an IR for a
UV, but added 2 VIS lasers and this required considerable time (and $$) in
Germany. Zeiss considers the 405 diode to be a UV source, so it would
definitely require a factory round-trip. Of course, it is possible if that
is really what you want to do.
Can you ask Coherent for an estimated price for service visit and
replacement of diodes? Usually the only thing that can really go wrong on
these lasers is the end of life on the diodes, or maybe some cleaning if you
have really dusty labs like we have here. Also, the IR laser may be used
primarily for DAPI now, but in the future has more potential uses... I
would repair it.
I'd be happy to listen to the symptoms of your laser and take a guess at the
cause, if you want. I am sure the rest of the list could give you some good
ideas on what is ailing, too.
Best for 2009,
-Holly
Holly L. Aaron
CRL Molecular Imaging Center
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-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Steven Ruzin
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 2:10 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Changing system from NIR (two-photon) to UV
Hello Esteban:
I have a LSM 510 with a 365 UV laser (water cooled Ar laser). It's
coupled to the scan head via a quartz fiber. Inside the head is a
(factory) UV collimator lens. The objectives are all planNeo or Plan
Apo. We have no "UV" (Ultrafluor) lenses. The cost is considerable:
The laser is a Coherent Enterprise II system with a water-to-water
heat exchanger. The laser was >$60k, and is now obsolete. I have a
warranty directly from Coherent. To change your non-UV scan head
would require sending back to the factory (Germany, not the US) to
replace the primary dichroic, add a second fiber coupler, add the
collimator, add the UV AOTF (factory-installed at the output window
of the Coherent), and whatever other internal optics CZ requires.
Given that the Enterprise is obsolete, you'll probably have to go
with a UV diode, but they're not cheap either, and you still have the
fiber and the AOTF to contend with.
Steve...
>
>
>On 24/12/08 3:47 AM, "G. Esteban Fernandez"
><<>[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>Hello all,
>
>On our Zeiss LSM 510 META two-photon system we have a Coherent
>Chameleon NIR laser that may need major repair. Coherent has been
>very good in providing remote technical assistance to us but we're
>at a point where a service visit is required and we're not under
>contract. Since we do more shallow imaging of UV dyes like DAPI on
>that system that two-photon imaging, we would replace the NIR laser
>with UV if it is more cost-effective than repairing the NIR. Zeiss
>says a switch from NIR to UV would require a major (and pricey)
>overhaul of the optics. I don't know what that entails but it is
>understandable given the huge difference in wavelength. However, I
>wonder how badly out of focus or aberrated the UV image would
>actually be with the optics that are already in place if we put a UV
>laser in there in place of the NIR; we do have a UV laser dichroic.
> Might it be good enough for at least localizing nuclei? (I do know
>how to do non-confocal UV imaging on the system) Can people advise
>on an NIR-to-UV swap of lasers?
>
>Thanks,
>Esteban
--
____________________________________________________________________________
Steven E. Ruzin, Ph.D.
Director, Biological Imaging Facility
381 Koshland Hall College of Natural Resources
University of California Berkeley CA 94720-3102
510-642-6602 510-642-4995
(fax)
http://microscopy.berkeley.edu
|
