Super-resolution microscopy / nanoscopy / nanospectroscopy

The state-of-the-art modular 2-photon super-resolution 3D STED microscope, custom-built by Abberior Instruments, is equiped with several exciation and detection modalities for live-cell imaging of supramolecular structures on the scales down to 30 nm.

Technical details:

Inverted microscope:

• Olympus IX83 body with several objectives (10x/0.4, 60x/1.2 water, 100x/1.4 oil)
• motorised stage
• stagetop incubator controlling temperature, humidity, and CO2
• 4-colour LED widefield illumination

Modular fully automated Abberior Instruments Expert Line 2D/3D STED equipped with:

• 5 excitation lasers: 405 (cw), 485, 518, 561, 640 nm (pulsed: 40/80 MHz, 100 ps)
• STED depletion laser: 775 nm (pulsed: 40/80 MHz, ns)
• high-power Ti-Saph laser: tunable 800-1300 nm (pulsed: 80 MHz, 150 fs)
• fast galvanometric scanning (up to 2 kHz)
• 4 single-photon-counting detection: avalanche photodiodes (APDs; deadtime <25 ns)
• spectrally-resolved detection: 16-channel PMT with diffraction grating by Becker&Hickl
• FLIM: time-correlated single-photon-counting (TCSPC) electronics by Becker&Hickl
• transmission detection: PMT for simultaneous acquisition with confocal scanning

The flexible setup enables:

• acquisition of any combination of the coordinates x,y,z,t,tau,lambda
• acquisition with any combination of the following modalities: confocal, 2D/3D STED, FLIM, spectral
• automation of complex experiments through python scripts
• addition of new laser sources, detectors, optics, …