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Greetings Kem,
I'm not sure what the magnitude of average power that your chameleon
puts out is, but assuming you are running a 10W pump configuration, you
are probably around 1W at the laser head, and probably capable of
getting ~500mw into the scan head after the AOM and steering mirrors.
    Ti:Sapphire lasers are capable of damaging optics at high average
power levels if the optics are not designed for high power lasers.  I'm
not sure what power density the optical elements in the 510 NLO system
can handle, but I would chance that they are engineered to handle the
Chameleon's output.  A more subtle problem might be the extinction ratio
of the AOM (at high powers the device might not be able to completely
attenuate laser power on the flyback) but I'm not sure of this.
    We routinely run dispersion-compensated ultrafast pulsed Ti:Sapph
radiation at full power through our Leica scan head the optics have held
up fine.  Our system uses EOM technology for laser attenuation.  You
should be aware that at high power levels optical breakdown of
biological tissues is almost certain; indeed we can machine silica and
borosilicate glass at high fluence levels.  In typical imaging
situations, the specimen would be almost instantly turned into hot
plasma and carbon at high power levels under high NA focusing conditions.
 -Karl

Kem Rogers wrote:

> Search the CONFOCAL archive at
> http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>
> I am wondering if there is any reason why the IR laser cannot be run at
> full (100%) power through the optics of this microscope.  The objective
> being used is a 5X Neofluar.  Laser (Cameleon) is set to 800nm. Is there
> any chance that damage to optical surfaces etc. can occur?
>
> Kem Rogers Ph.D.
> Associate Professor
> Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
> The University of Western Ontario
> London, Ont
> N6A 5C1
>
> Phone (519) 661-3995
> Fax     (519) 661-3995 or 3936


--
Karl Garsha
Specialist in Biological Photonic Microscopy
Imaging Technology Group
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
405 North Mathews Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
Office: B650J
Phone: 217.244.6292
Mobile: 217.390.1874
www.itg.uiuc.edu