Alignment helper: laser pointer objective

[ChrisWilms]

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Dear list,

I have heard about these nifty little tools several times in the past,  
but have been unable to find one at any of the usual sources: a laser  
pointer with an objective threading that is aligned with the optical  
axis of the objective. The result is an retrograde laser beam, making  
alignment of a new laser a piece of cake (or so I hope).

Does anyone have a suggestion of where I might find one of these?

Cheers, Christian

[Philipp Bethge]

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Dear Christian,

I am usually taking a single mode fiber, couple the laser in, use a
small focal length lens (f40) to collimate the output, fix it all with
optomechanics and there you go. I recently bought a small 80mW 808nm
laser diode for $20 and used it to align a two-photon system. be aware,
if you have a cavity, such as a Ti:SAP laser, this will not guarantee
proper alignment. best is to have your laser output through a fiber
which you then use to couple your backward laser in (check the end of
that fiber for light going through). unfortunately, there is no
broadband (i.e 720-950nm) low GVD fiber on the market for two-photon
systems (please prove me wrong!)
that should give you pretty good results.

Good luck,
Philipp

> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> *****
>
> Dear list,
>
> I have heard about these nifty little tools several times in the past,
> but have been unable to find one at any of the usual sources: a laser
> pointer with an objective threading that is aligned with the optical
> axis of the objective. The result is an retrograde laser beam, making
> alignment of a new laser a piece of cake (or so I hope).
>
> Does anyone have a suggestion of where I might find one of these?
>
> Cheers, Christian

[Pascal Weber]

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I do it ! It is really hard to explain how to do it with just some words. But the
critical point is to be sure that you reference has a very good co-alignment
optical-axes/laser. For this i do it on an optical table and use mirrors. The cost is
about 400Euro. But i can use it on any microscope (Leica, Nikon, Olympus and
Zeiss). But most of the time the two-photon system have à reference laser
inside the head and you activate it with the factory password.

[ChrisWilms]

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Thanks all who replied. It appears I will need to go for a fiber-based  
solution for back aligning.

Thanks, Christian

> I am usually taking a single mode fiber, couple the laser in, use a
> small focal length lens (f40) to collimate the output, fix it all with
> optomechanics and there you go. I recently bought a small 80mW 808nm
> laser diode for $20 and used it to align a two-photon system. be  
> aware,
> if you have a cavity, such as a Ti:SAP laser, this will not guarantee
> proper alignment. best is to have your laser output through a fiber
> which you then use to couple your backward laser in (check the end of
> that fiber for light going through). unfortunately, there is no
> broadband (i.e 720-950nm) low GVD fiber on the market for two-photon
> systems (please prove me wrong!)
> that should give you pretty good results.
>
> Good luck,
> Philipp
>
>> *****
>> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
>> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
>> *****
>>
>> Dear list,
>>
>> I have heard about these nifty little tools several times in the  
>> past,
>> but have been unable to find one at any of the usual sources: a laser
>> pointer with an objective threading that is aligned with the optical
>> axis of the objective. The result is an retrograde laser beam, making
>> alignment of a new laser a piece of cake (or so I hope).
>>
>> Does anyone have a suggestion of where I might find one of these?
>>
>> Cheers, Christian