Zeiss LSM 880, Operating Manual

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CHAPTER 1 - SYSTEM OPERATION
LSM 880 Hardware Aspects ZEISS
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2.4 Optical Diagram of the LSM 880 (Schematic)
AS Airyscan detector MBS Main Beam Splitter
DBS Dichroic Beam Splitter NDD Non-Descanned Detector
EF Emission Filter PMT Photomultiplier
HAL Halogen Lamp T-PMT Transmission-Photomultiplier
HBO Mercury Vapor Short-Arc Lamp ZO Zoom Optics
IBF Infrared Blocking Filter GaAsP Gallium Arsenide Phosphide
Fig. 4 Optical path on an inverted microscope, schematic (2 PMT / 32 array configuration)
The diagram above is a schematic representation of the LSM 880 system with attached Airyscan and
BiG.2 module.
Laser light is focused onto the specimen through an objective in a diffraction-limited mode. Light emitted
at the focal plane and at planes below and above it is directed via an XY scanner onto a main dichroic
beam splitter (MDBS), which separates the emissions from the excitation light. In the LSM 880 the
fluorescence is either spectrally separated by passing through a grating onto the Quasar detector (3 PMTs
or 2 PMTs plus 1 central GaAsP detector or 2 PMTs plus 32 channel GaAsP array) or directed via
secondary beam splitters into Airyscan or BiG.2 module. In Airyscan light is filtered by emission filters
(EF5) and projected onto the Airyscan detector with its 32 sub-airy detector elements. In the BiG.2
module the light passes through a Push & Click filter cube with a dichroic beam splitter (DBS 6) and two
emission filters (EF6 and EF7) onto 2 GaAsP (GaAsP1 and GaAsP2) detectors. The pinhole (VP) blocks all
out of focus light, whereas emission filters (EF) are used to select a specific spectrum of the emitted light
and to suppress any remaining excitation light. In NLO applications, light can be either directed to the
Quasar detector or BiG.2 module (descanned detection) or to NDDs (equipped with either multialkali or
GaAsP PMT) in transmission or reflection position (non-descanned detection).