Microscope & core hardware

  • Stand: Axio Examiner.Z1 (upright, motorized Z, manual XY)
  • Motorized XY stage: 120 × 80 mm travel, repeatability ±0.25 µm
  • Real-time autofocus: Definite Focus 2 for NLO
  • User I/O box: 8 TTL in / 8 TTL out for external trigger and synchronization
  • Polarization optics: rotatable polarizer + analyzer set for anisotropy imaging
  • Illumination: X-Cite 120LED widefield lamp with fast shutter

Imaging modes

  • Point-scanning confocal (VIS)
  • Multiphoton / second-harmonic generation (NLO)
  • Spectral scanning, lambda-stacking, FCS/FCCS
  • FRAP & photo-activation with galvanometer ROI

Lasers (factory-integrated)

Wavelength Type Notes
Tunable 690-1 040 nm Coherent Chameleon Ultra II (3.5 W) 140 fs pulses, 80 MHz
405 nm 30 mW diode DNA / DAPI
445 nm 50 mW diode CFP, mCerulean
488 nm 20 mW OPSL GFP, FITC
561 nm 25 mW DPSS Cy3, mCherry
594 nm 20 mW HeNe Texas Red
633 nm 10 mW HeNe Cy5, Alexa 647

Detectors

  • 32-channel GaAsP QUASAR spectral detector (photon-counting capable, 405–695 nm)
  • 2 × standard PMT detectors (NIR-enhanced)
  • BiG-II non-descanned GaAsP pair for multiphoton (blue-green & green-red bands)
  • Transmitted NDD PMT for SHG / label-free imaging

Filter cubes (widefield side port)

  • Set 49 DAPI Ex G365 / Em BP 445/50
  • Set 38 HE GFP Ex BP 470/40 / Em BP 525/50
  • Set 43 HE mCherry Ex BP 550/25 / Em BP 605/70
  • Set 50 Cy5 Ex BP 640/30 / Em BP 690/50

Objectives (with matching DIC sliders)

Objective NA Immersion Notes
Plan-Apochromat 10× 0.45 dry WD 2 mm
Plan-Apochromat 20× 0.8 dry WD 0.55 mm
C-Apochromat 40× 1.2 water, corr. collar Live-cell MP
Plan-Apochromat 63× 1.4 oil Highest resolution

Environmental control

  • PeCon Incubator XL-LSM: 5–40 °C, 0–15 % CO₂, humidity regulation
  • Temperature Module S: sample cooling to –5 °C / heating to +80 °C (no CO₂)

Software (ZEN Black 2012)

  • Spectral Unmixing & Linear Unmix Wizard
  • FCS & FCCS GaAsP module
  • FRAP / FLIP bleaching control with recovery analysis
  • Experiment Designer + Multi-Time / Tile & Position
  • 3D-VisArt volume-render engine