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Good morning,

I have installed at different places of the same University two systems -
and am now installing a third one - including two MPLSMs each and sharing
a laser for imaging and another laser for chemical activation. It works
fine.

What I did is to send the resp. laser beams through an achromatic
(achromatic from approx. 680nm - approx. 1064nm, the achromaticity is
important!) 1/2 lambda plate mounted in a motor driven rotation stage. A
polarizing beam splitter cube or Foster prism are mounted behind the
lambda/2 plate.

The motor driving the rotation stage for the lambda/2 plate is controlled
via a PC and a dedicated program. I have solutions from Newport and Standa
and both work equally fine.

The namely PC also controls the resp. two lasers (one Chameleon, one
DeepSee, controlling two lasers of the same type from one PC might be a
problem). I have established calibration curves for the position of the
rotation stage indicating the transmitted power as a function of the motor
position.

With this arrangement, the users can adjust for the required laser power
without having to access the hardware on the optical table (which, for
safety reasons, is hidden behind an enclosure from Al plates).

I think it is a very good idea to avoid having the laser control program
and / or lambda/2 position control installed on the same PC(s) controlling
the MPLSMs. A "neutral" third PC helps to avoid a lot of possible trouble.

It is, to my mind, necessary to avoid any optical fiber when operating
MPLSMs using ultrafast lasers with pulses in the few hundreds fsec or
sub-onehundred fsec range. Thus, both setups should be mounted on one
optical table.

Best wishes,

Johannes

-- 
P. Johannes Helm, M.Sc. PhD
Seniorengineer
CMBN
University of Oslo
Institute of Basic Medical Science
Department of Anatomy
Postboks 1105 - Blindern
NO-0317 Oslo

Voice:	+47 228 51159
Fax:	+47 228 51499

WWW:	folk.uio.no/jhelm

> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> *****
>
> Dear list,
>
> I wonder if anybody tried to simultaneously run two 2p systems
> off single Chameleon 2p laser.
>
> Additional issue is how to deliver 2p beam to the second system
> which we want to setup on a separate optical table. Will a fiber
> connection work? Please suggest any potential options that would be
> significantly cheaper than buying second Chameleon laser ($160k).
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
>
>
> Arvydas Matiukas, Ph.D.
> Director of Confocal&Two-Photon Core
> Department of Pharmacology
> SUNY Upstate Medical University
> 766 Irving Ave., WH 3167
> Syracuse, NY 13210
> tel.: 315-464-7997
> fax: 315-464-8014
> email: [log in to unmask]
>