Confocal Scanning Microscopes

Confocal laser scanning microscopes have a pinhole in the image plane to block fluorescence light from out-of-focus layers. This results in a contrast rich image of a thin layer of your sample often called optical section. Consecutive optical sections are commonly used for 3D reconstructions.

Zeiss LSM700 (two setups)

The Zeiss LSM700s are two-channel confocal systems on inverted or upright microscopes with 405 nm, 488 nm, 555 nm, and 639 nm excitation lasers. Their laser line suppression makes it possible to collect emission light even beyond the excitation laser line. The LSM700s are perfectly suited for generating high quality confocal images, composite images from adjacent tiles (tile-scanning), multi-color images i.e. for co-localization analysis, and 3D reconstructions.

Zeiss LSM800 AiryScan and LSM900 AiryScan

The Zeiss LSM800 and the LSM900 are a three-channel confocal systems on an inverted microscope with 405 nm, 488 nm, 555 nm, and 639 nm excitation lasers. Two high-sensitive detection channels are based on the gallium arsenid phosphid (GaAsP) technology and the third channel is an AiryScan module. The AiryScan module allow up to 1.7x better resolution (in all three dimensions: 120 nm in XY and 350 nm in z) than standard scanning confocal microscopes, higher sensitivity (4-8x higher SNR), and more gentle excitation (less photobleaching and phototoxicity). The LSM800 and the LSM900 are perfectly suited for generating high-resolution confocal images, composite images from adjacent tiles (tile-scanning), multi-color images i.e. for co-localization analysis, and 3D reconstructions.

Zeiss LSM780NLO

The Zeiss LSM780NLO is a high-end fully motorized confocal scanning microscope. It is a high-sensitive 34-channel confocal system (the LSM780) on an inverted microscope equipped with a two-photon laser. Therefore, it is actually both a confocal and a two-photon microscope. For confocal microscopy, there are a 405 nm, 458 nm, 488 nm, 514 nm, 561 nm and a 633 nm laser line. The 34-channels are ideally suited for multi-color fluorescence and live separation of several highly overlapping emission spectra (spectral unmixing). For two-photon microscopy, there are two non-descanned detectors (NDDs) in the reflection mode for simultaneous recording of two different fluorescences. In addition, the setup is equipped with an incubator for long-term temperature and CO2 control. Thus, the LSM780NLO is perfectly suited for all standard confocal applications and live cell imaging including photo-manipulation experiments like FRAP and uncaging. Due to the high sensitive detectors the LSM780 can be used not only for standard confocal applications but also for fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) and raster image correlation spectroscopy (RICS).

Zeiss LSM880 AiryScan and LSM980 AiryScan

The Zeiss LSM880and the LSM980 are a high-end fully motorized confocal scanning microscope. They are 34-channel confocal system on an inverted microscopes equipped with a 405 nm, 458 nm, 488 nm, 515 nm, 561 nm, 594 nm, and a 633 nm laser line (LSM880) or 405 nm, 445 nm, 488 nm, 514 nm, 561 nm, 594 nm and 639nm laser lines (LSM980). Both setups feature 34 high-sensitive detection channels on the basis of the gallium arsenid phosphid (GaAsP) technology and the AiryScan module. The AiryScan module allow up to 1.7x better resolution (in all three dimensions: 120 nm in XY and 350 nm in z) than standard scanning confocal microscopes, higher sensitivity (4-8x higher SNR), higher scan speed (27 fpsat 480 x 480 pixels), and more gentle excitation (less photobleaching and phototoxicity). Further more, the Airy detectors can be used to image with 4x (and for the LSM980 also 8x) increased speed. The LSM980 is equipped with a piezo z-drive stage insert for fast z-stacks. Both setups are equipped with a temperature/CO₂ incubator and a definite focus for maintaining the focus position. Therefore, these confocal systems are ideally suited for multi-color fluorescences, live cell imaging and imaging fast processes of even weakly fluorescent specimen.

LeicaSP8/STED

See section: Super Resolution