Dear All,
I do apologize for sending such a long mail to the list. Someone from
Columbia requested informations on vendors of quartz coverslip and I have
problem replying directly to the address of the requester, so here it is.
December 11, 1995
From: [log in to unmask] "Marc M. Friedman"
Dear Fellow Confocalists:
Here is the list of suppliers of quartz cover slips that you
each requested. I waited this long to send it because of the
low number of replies. Anyway, here it is. I will provide
updates if significant new information becomes available.
Marc
Responses:
7-NOV-1995 17:02:43.60
>From an anonymous contributor
Dear Dr. Friedman,
I think it is a good idea to compile such a list. I had often
been asked for something like that and therefore already
collected some information.
First of all, "quartz" is not a well defined word. "Quartz" can
be crystalline or synthetic. Crystalline quartz has higher
refractive indices but, due to its birefringence properties,
is not useful for applications where polarized light is
involved, as e.g. in CSLMs. Amongst the fused silicas, there
are also several types, the names of which are partly
trademarks, e.g. Suprasil, Herasil, Spectrosil etc. The
different types are characterized by different transmission
ranges. Suprasil, e.g., transmits at farer UV wavelengths as
Herasil. For detailed information, I can provide you with
references. I think you won't need this, however, for your
list.
Zeiss offers two different classes of fused silica (FS)
coverslips, one class which is 350 microns in thickness and is
made for the old-style (160mm mechnical tube length,
compensating ocular resp. projective required) Ultrafluar
objectives, another which is 200 microns in thickness and is
made for the new, infinity corrected Ultrafluar objectives (for
use in deep UV, the standard tube lens in the microscope has to
be replaced with a special one).
The catalogue numbers are:
FS cover slip, 350 microns thick, round, diameter 17mm, cat.
nr. 462941,
FS cover slip, 350 microns thick, rect. shape, 30mm x 23mm,
cat. nr. 462940.
FS cover slip, 200 microns thick, round, diameter 17mm, cat.
nr. 412902,
FS cover slip, 200 microns thick, rect. shape, 30mm x 23mm,
cat. nr. 412901.
There are also microscope slides from FS:
FS micr. slide, 900 microns thick, rect. shape, 48mm x 26mm,
cat. nr. 462945.
The micr. slide was, as far as I know, specially designed for
the old FS condensor, N.A. 0.8, to be used at a time, when
fluorescence illumination still was done in transmission light
mode.
If a customer is rich enough, he might receive high precision
cover slips in fused silica e.g. from
Bernhard Halle (Nachfl.) GmbH,
Optische Werkstaetten,
D-12163 Berlin Steglitz
Germany
phone: +49 30 791 6077
fax: +49 30 791 8527
Continental Optical Corporation,
15 Power Drive,
Hauppauge, NY 11788
phone: 516 582 3388
Please, note that these two factories normally make individual
pieces of high precision optics, which are of both, an extreme
quality and also extreme price.
I know that, for the new C-Apochromat 40x/1.2W by Zeiss there
exist special high precision coverslips (extremely constant in
thickness so to minimize spherical aberrations and
spherochromatism) and these are not cheap. I am not informed,
whether they are made from FS or from UBK-7 glass, but I
suppose they are not from FS since they are made for
wavelengths not any shorter than 350 nm.
8-NOV-1995 09:02:58.03
From: IN%"[log in to unmask]" "Barry Burbach"
The only place that I know of was McCrone [McCrone Accessories
& Components, Westmont, IL; 708-887-7100] which you probably
know about. While you're at it, do you know if the refractive
index of quartz coverslips vary by manufacturer? They should be
higher than glass in general and we should use ones closest to
glass if they exist. I'd appreciate a copy of your list and any
info on CYTOP if that's changed.
Many thanks,
Barry J Burbach
Cold Spring Harbor
Laboratory
13-NOV-1995 10:21:11.73
From: IN%"[log in to unmask]" (Dan Focht)
I do not know the name of this firm but I do know they can make
quartz coverslips.
Their phone no is 603-474-2272
Daniel Focht
December 11, 1995
From: [log in to unmask]
Re: quartz cover slips
Dear Confocalists:
I have recently obtained the following information regarding
Olympus quartz cover slips, intended for use with confocal
microscopes and UV excitation:
Olympus part # LSM-360: UV cover glass, 25mm diameter, 50
pieces $1,621.40.
[CYTOP coverslip information added by request:]
9-JUL-1995 21:37:16.85
To: IN%"[log in to unmask]" "Multiple recipients
of list CONFOCAL"
Subj: Information on Cytop
From: Tetsuhiro Minamikawa
<[log in to unmask]>
Hi, everybody
I received a letter from an Olympus researcher about some
information on Cytop Coverslips, which we discussed out here
may be useful for obtaining good optical sections in living
cells/tissues. I am fowarding herewith the letter, because he
has not subscribed to this list as yet. He would greatly
appreciate frank opinions about the product from any of you in
this list.
Tets Minamikawa
Deparment of Physiology, The University of Melbourne
Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia
Ph: +61 3 344 5816; Fax: +61 3 344 5818
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Dear Confocalists,
I would like to let you know of detailed technical information
on Cytop Coverslips.
1)Differences in refractive indices and Abbe numbers between
Cytop and water
<Cytop> nd=1.34166 vd=93.58
<Water> nd=1.33304 vd=55.72
2)Internal transmittance of Cytop
It is over 99% in the visible light range and over 95% even at
200 nm wavelength with 0.2mm thickness.
3)Birefringence of Cytop
Cytop has Birefringence because it is an amorphous
FluorocarboPolymer. However, it is very small, i.e., the same
as PMMA and about 1/10 of PC. So we can use Cytop Coverslips
in every observation mode except for a severe polarization
observation.
4)Influence of using Cytop coverslip with water-immersion
objectives
The refractive index of Cytop is almost the same as that of
water but not precisely equal. So when using with high NA
objectives, you cannot use thick Cytop Coverslips. For example,
with NA 0.9 water-immersion objective, you must use the Cytop
of less than 0.5mm in thickness. Of course, the lower the NA
is, the smaller the influence becomes.
5)Cytop Coverslips vs Conventional Coverslips
Cytop Coverslips cannot replace normal cover glasses when they
are used with high NA objectives because of the differences in
the refractive indices between Cytop and normal cover
glass(nd=1.521).
I have resumed development of the Cytop Coverslip in
cooperation with Asahi Glass
Co., Ltd.. However, I am still concerned about how big the
demand for Cytop Coverslips
really is among researchers in biology, because the price
(cost) would depend on their demands and the amount
manufactured. So please let me know your open-hearted opinions
and suggestions about Cytop Coverslips. Thank you in advance.
FROM Shingo Kashima
Optical Research & Development Department, Olympus Optical
Co.,Ltd.
2951 Ishikawa-cho, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo 192, Japan
FAX : 81-426-42-2102
E-mail : [log in to unmask]
10-JUL-1995 10:30:13.21
From: Tobias Baskin <[log in to unmask]>
Greetings, In describing "Cytop", Dr Kashima of Olympus
wrote:
>1)Differences in refractive indices and Abbe numbers between
Cytop and water
> <Cytop> nd=1.34166 vd=93.58
> <Water> nd=1.33304 vd=55.72
>4)Influence of using Cytop coverslip with water-immersion
objectives
>The refractive index of Cytop is almost the same as that of
water but not precisely equal. So >when using with high NA
objectives, you cannot use thick Cytop Coverslips. For example,
with >NA 0.9 water-immersion objective, you must use the Cytop
of less than 0.5mm in thickness. >Of course, the lower the NA
is, the smaller the influence becomes.
In the context of earlier discussions on imaging thick
biological samples, wouldn't the idea be to also develop an
inert immersion fluid with an index precisely equal to the
cytop n of 1.34166? The refractive index of cytoplasm is also
greater than that of water. With the immersion fluid
index equal to the coverslip index, then the exact thickness of
the coverslip no longer is crucial (?), and with the index of
the fluid more or less matching that of the sample and its
mounting medium, then imaging thick specimens becomes possible.
So then the question becomes could Olympus design a
high NA objective for n=1.34166 immersion, to be used with
cytop coverslips, that would work as well as the current lines
of high NA water immersion lenses (taking glass coverslips of
exact thickness), but that would cost less? If so, then I think
that the confocal community would be very interested.
Just my two photons,
Tobias Baskin
Tobias I. Baskin
University of Missouri
Biological Sciences, 109 Tucker Hall
Columbia, MO 65211 USA
voice: 314-882-0173; fax: 314-882-0123
10-JUL-1995 11:21:20.97
From: Barry Burbach <[log in to unmask]>
I have copied some of my response to this inquiry because it
may be of some interest to a few on this list.
Dear Mr. Kashima,
I have had extensive experience with the use of plastic
coverslips and would be glad to reply to your inquiry. As you
know, plastic coverslips are of use in only one case, the use
of a non-coverglass-corrected water immersion (dip) lens used
in a coverslipped configuration. Some of the water immersion
lenses available these days are corrected for a glass coverslip
(such as the Nikon 60x/1.2 planapo W) and depend on the use of
glass coverslip to maintain their correction. The use of
plastic would not be of any benefit. The problem with these
lenses is that to get the amount of correction that the lens
engineers demand requires cutting the working distance to very
small (>250 microns) lengths.So while these lenses give
beautiful images of water-mounted specimens, many 3D
microscopists are frustrated with them because we cannot reach
to see at all. To beat this, we have used several methods, one
of which is to use a water immersion dip lens such as your
series or Zeiss's which have lesser degree of correction and
more working distance. The problem is that the movement of the
lens causes turbulence in the water, ofter disturbing the
specimen, causing drift. Otherwise, many images are acceptable
as usually we are throwing away all but the center of the field
by zooming to get good sampling. The next step is to use it in
a coverslip mode but glass ruins this image. The use of a lower
refractive index coverslip helps a lot. I started out using
ACLAR with a refractive index of ~1.45 in the thinnest film I
could get ~50 microns. Other plastics such as FEP and THV have
numbers down around 1.35 and in theory work better but are
often limited by their wavyness and clarity as the extruders
don't often get a consistant product out of these resins. CYTOP
sounds like it would be the best yet for this application. The
other solution is to make some coverslip corrected lenses which
sacrifice some correction and f ield by just the right amount
in order to get some working distance, the thought of which,
for some odd reason, sickens most lens designers.
Best wishes,
Barry J Burbach, Dept. of
Neurobiology
University at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY 11754-5230
[log in to unmask]
or [log in to unmask]
----- End Included Message -----
Those of you on this net for more than five years know that
We've relentlessly hammered away at the manufacturers to
produce interesting lenses and some are coming out. for many
applications though, we may well need to give up some of this
great correction in order to get the W.D. we need and not end
up with a lens the size of a baseball that costs $40,000. Those
of you
that use the Nikon fluor 40x/1.3 oil lens because of its good
throughput and a few extra microns of w.d. have a good
example. There are lenses which are cheap to design and build
and some good historic examples, but if you don't tell them
they'll think that you don't care.
BJB
17-JUL-1995 22:20:01.64
To: IN%"[log in to unmask]" "Multiple recipients
of list CONFOCAL"
From: Tetsuhiro Minamikawa
<[log in to unmask]>
Subj: More information on Cytop C
Dear Sirs/Madams
Sorry I am late in replying your inquiries because I had some
measurments and calculations added to data on Cytop. I would
like to let you know more information on Cytop Coverslips.
1)Birefringence of Cytop Coverslips
I measured the birefringence of Cytop Coverslips with BH2
microscope two years ago, but I am afraid the value was not
necessarily precise, so I have remeasured the birefringence of
Cytop Coverslips with our compensator system of BX50. The
result is that the birefringence of Cytop Coverslip of 0.15mm
in thickness is around 3nm, i.e., about 1/200 of the
wavelength. How do you think about this value? Is it big or
small?
2)Specifications of our new Water-immersion (saline-immersible)
objectives:
NAME NA WD FN U-EX
DIC
UMPLFL10XW 0.30 3.30 26.5 OK OK
UMPLFL20XW 0.50 3.30 26.5 OK OK
LUMPLFL40XW0.80 3.30 26.5 OK OK
LUMPLFL60XW0.90 2.00 26.5 OK OK
Notes:
*"U-EX OK" means that UV excitation is available.
These objectives have some transmittance in the near UV region,
but may not have high image qualities in this region.
*"DIC OK" means that DIC observation is available.
*These objectives are all corrected with distilled water,
i.e., nd=1.33304, vd=55.72 water.
3)Differences in Abbe number between Cytop and Saline
Even if you were able to make saline whose refractive index is
exactly the same as that of Cytop, the Abbe number cannot be
the same as that of Cytop, because the Abbe number of saline is
almost same as that of distilled water. Therefore, even if you
have the objectives corrected with saline whose refractive
index is same as that of Cytop, you cannot use thick Cytop
Coverslips in white light (wide range wavelength region)
observation. For example, with NA 0.9 saline
(nd=1.34166)-immersible objective, you have to use the Cytop
Coverslip less than 0.6mm in thickness. Of course, the
narrower the wavelength region becomes, the more negligible the
problem is.
4)Supply with Cytop Coverslips
I am very sorry I cannot supply you with any sample of Cytop
Coverslip at the moment, because I have got only a few samples
from Asahi Glass Co. Ltd., which are invaluable for me.
However, as I mentioned before, I have resumed development of
the Cytop Coverslip in cooperation with Asahi Glass Co. Ltd.,
so I hope I can supply you with some samples in the near
future. Please wish my success in this matter.
Thank you very much for your valuable suggestions.
FROM [log in to unmask] (Shingo Kashima)
Optical Research & Development Department, Olympus Optical
Co.,Ltd.
2951,Ishikawa-cho,Hachioji-shi,Tokyo,192,Japan
FAX : 81-426-42-2102
E-mail : [log in to unmask]
McCrone Accessories and Components lists quartz coverglasses and slides in
their catalog.
McCrone Accessories and Components
850 Pasquinelli Drive
Westmont, IL 60559 USA
708-887-7100
800-MAC-8122
Louie Kerr
At 8:54 AM 7/10/96, Beebe, David (314) 362-1621 wrote:
>I would also like to hear about sources for quartz coverslips, so please (also)
>respond to the list. Thanks,
>
>Dave Beebe
>[log in to unmask]
Louie Kerr
Research and Education Support Coordinator
Marine Biological Laboratory
7 MBL Street
Woods Hole, MA 02543
508-289-7273
508-540-6902 (FAX)
VISIT OUR WEB SITE:
http://www.mbl.edu
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