HeNe operation

[Bruno Saubaméa]

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Dear all,
thank you for your answers about the expected lifetime of the 543nm HeNe
laser on Leica TCS SP2. Everyone seems to agree that 2000 hrs is a fairly
normal lifetime. I have another question for laser specialists. If this
laser is not used for a few hrs in the day, for example during lunch time
(yes we take a very long lunch break in France!), is it better to shutt it
off or is it less damaging for the laser to be left in operation?
Thank You all
Bruno

[John Runions]

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Hi Everyone,  we have a 405nm diode laser on a Zeiss Meta and it is used for photobleaching and activation of GFP.  It seems to take an inordinate amount of time to come up to full bleaching power, i.e. a couple of hours.  Is this expected?  I would have thought that these should warm up fairly quickly.

John.

[Zoltan]

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Hi John,

 

The max we wait is 30 min, although we don't do bleaching, just straight DAPI/Hoechts work on an SP5.

 

Zoltan

On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 12:46 PM, John Runions <[hidden email]> wrote:

Search the CONFOCAL archive at http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal

Hi Everyone,  we have a 405nm diode laser on a Zeiss Meta and it is used for photobleaching and activation of GFP.  It seems to take an inordinate amount of time to come up to full bleaching power, i.e. a couple of hours.  Is this expected?  I would have thought that these should warm up fairly quickly.

John.

--

*********************************
C. John Runions, Ph.D.
School of Life Sciences
Oxford Brookes University
Oxford, UK
OX3 0BP

email:  [hidden email]
phone: [phone]

Runions' lab web site

 

Visit The Illuminated Plant Cell dot com
Oxford Brookes Master's in Bioimaging with Molecular Technology

--
--
Zoltan Cseresnyes
Facility manager, Imaging Suite
Dept. of Zoology University of Cambridge
Downing Street, Cambridge
CB2 3EJ UK

Tel.: (++44) (0)1223 769282
Fax.: (++44) (0)1223 336676

[Craig Brideau]

Search the CONFOCAL archive at http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal Sounds like a possible problem with the controller.  With laser diodes the controller deals with the laser current and usually a thermoelectric cooler of some sort.  It tweaks the current to these two things and typically uses a PI or PID control loop to bring the system to equilibrium.  If there's a problem with the PID settings the system can take a long time to stabilize, or oscillate out of control, depending.  If there's a fault with the heater or the laser itself the control system can be trying to make changes but the system isn't responding the way the controller expects because of the damage.  Control inputs are usually optical power and temperature; outputs are laser current and cooler current/voltage.

Craig

On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 5:46 AM, John Runions <[hidden email]> wrote:

Search the CONFOCAL archive at http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal

Hi Everyone,  we have a 405nm diode laser on a Zeiss Meta and it is used for photobleaching and activation of GFP.  It seems to take an inordinate amount of time to come up to full bleaching power, i.e. a couple of hours.  Is this expected?  I would have thought that these should warm up fairly quickly.

John.

--

*********************************
C. John Runions, Ph.D.
School of Life Sciences
Oxford Brookes University
Oxford, UK
OX3 0BP

email:  [hidden email]
phone: [phone]

Runions' lab web site

 

Visit The Illuminated Plant Cell dot com
Oxford Brookes Master's in Bioimaging with Molecular Technology

[Julio Vazquez]

Search the CONFOCAL archive at http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal =

Here you may find some useful info about HeNe lasers:

http://members.misty.com/don/laserhen.htm#henhlc

Check the section: "HeNe Laser Tubes, Heads, Structure, Power Requirements, Lifetime"

--

Julio Vazquez

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Seattle, WA 98109-1024

http://www.fhcrc.org/

On Apr 9, 2008, at 4:12 AM, Bruno Saubamea wrote:

Search the CONFOCAL archive at

http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal

Dear all,

thank you for your answers about the expected lifetime of the 543nm HeNe

laser on Leica TCS SP2. Everyone seems to agree that 2000 hrs is a fairly

normal lifetime. I have another question for laser specialists. If this

laser is not used for a few hrs in the day, for example during lunch time

(yes we take a very long lunch break in France!), is it better to shutt it

off or is it less damaging for the laser to be left in operation?

Thank You all

Bruno

[Guy Cox]

Search the CONFOCAL archive at http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal

Diode lasers do sometimes drift in wavelength as they warm up.

Maybe yours is outside the range of whatever clean-up filter

you use (or the setting of your AOTF)  till it gets good and warm. 

Check this out with a spectrum analyser.

 

                                                                           Guy

 

Optical Imaging Techniques in Cell Biology

by Guy Cox CRC Press / Taylor & Francis

http://www.guycox.com/optical.htm

______________________________________________

 

Associate Professor Guy Cox, MA, DPhil(Oxon)

Electron Microscope Unit,

Madsen Building F09,

University of Sydney, NSW 2006

______________________________________________

 

Phone [phone] Fax [phone]

Mobile [phone]

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---

From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of John Runions
Sent: Wednesday, 9 April 2008 9:46 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: 405 laser warm-up time

 

Hi Everyone,  we have a 405nm diode laser on a Zeiss Meta and it is used for photobleaching and activation of GFP.  It seems to take an inordinate amount of time to come up to full bleaching power, i.e. a couple of hours.  Is this expected?  I would have thought that these should warm up fairly quickly.

John.

--

*********************************
C. John Runions, Ph.D.
School of Life Sciences
Oxford Brookes University
Oxford, UK
OX3 0BP

email:  [hidden email]
phone: [phone]

Runions’ lab web site

 

Visit The Illuminated Plant Cell dot com
Oxford Brookes Master's in Bioimaging with Molecular Technology

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[Deanne Veronica Catmull]

Search the CONFOCAL archive at http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal

Hi John,

 

The engineers from Zeiss have told me that it takes approximately one hour for the laser to stabilize so tis is how long we wait  before using it. If your laser is older it may explain the extra lag time.

 

Regards,

 

Deanne.

 

---

From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of John Runions
Sent: Wednesday, 9 April 2008 9:46 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: 405 laser warm-up time

 

Hi Everyone,  we have a 405nm diode laser on a Zeiss Meta and it is used for photobleaching and activation of GFP.  It seems to take an inordinate amount of time to come up to full bleaching power, i.e. a couple of hours.  Is this expected?  I would have thought that these should warm up fairly quickly.

John.

--

*********************************
C. John Runions, Ph.D.
School of Life Sciences
Oxford Brookes University
Oxford, UK
OX3 0BP

email:  [hidden email]
phone: [phone]

Runions’ lab web site

 

Visit The Illuminated Plant Cell dot com
Oxford Brookes Master's in Bioimaging with Molecular Technology