Dear Colleagues

we want to buy a new confocal microscope and we are considering the
following laser systems:
1. Ar/Kr 488 nm, 568 nm, 647 nm, each 20 mW

2. Ar 458 nm, 488 nm, each 20 mW
   HeNe 543 nm, 0.3-1.0 mW
   HeNe 633 nm, 10 mW

3. Ar 458 nm, 488 nm, each 20 mW
   Kr 568 nm, 25 mW

My questions: How is the lifetime of the Ar laser and Kr laser compared
to the mixed gas Ar/Kr laser?
Is the 0.3-1.0 mW of the HeNe enough to visualize poor fluorescent
probes?
Is the 543 nm line of the HeNe to close to the emission peak of usual
dyes that are excited at 488 (FITC, Fluo-3, Calcium Green) so one has to
cut a part of the signal?
Any other suggestions?

We don't plan to do triple labelling at the moment, so the red line is
not absolutely necessary.

Thanks
Christian


--
Dr. Christian Lohr
Universitaet Kaiserslautern
Fachbereich Biologie
Abteilung Allgemeine Zoologie
Postfach 3049
D-67653
Kaiserslautern
Germany

http://www.uni-kl.de/FB-Biologie/AG-Deitmer/