Re: How to measure objective transmission curves?

Posted by Mark Cannell on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/How-to-measure-objective-transmission-curves-tp590172p590181.html

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Hi Andrew

All rays whose effective  NA >1 get reflected back by the system you
describe. There are more high NA rays than low NA rays (due to the area
of an annulus increasing with it's radius : pi(2r dr). As I see it, one
can't measure the true throughput with axial rays as the marginal rays
encouner very different glass thicknesses and there may be internal
field stops (or even phase rings!). The measurement of throughput is
certainly not going to be easy. I don't see how this is related to the
sine condition, which I believe simply defines a geometric constraint
for an undistorted image viz:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbe_sine_condition

Cheers Mark


Andrew Resnick wrote:

> Search the CONFOCAL archive at
> http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>
> Mark,
>
> That's a good question.  We attached a coverslip with a small drop of
> oil to the objective as a way to deal with immersion objectives.  I
> don't know what it means that the "sample" is in air; if some light is
> then totally internally reflected back into the coverslip, which could
> be a spectral issue due to dispersion.
>
> Using two matched objectives is probably a better method, but I
> imagine considerably more difficult due to alignment constraints and
> obtaining matched objectives.  The objectives we had obeyed the 'sine
> condition', which I believe means that there are fewer high-NA rays
> than low NA rays- this would help mitigate our experimental error as
> well.
>
>
> At 04:19 PM 9/2/2007, you wrote:
>> Search the CONFOCAL archive at
>> http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>>
>> Hi Andrew
>>
>> While I can see that method would work for lenses designed to work in
>> air, wouldn't total internal reflection be a problem for lenses with
>> an NA over 1.0? The only way I can think of doing it is to use two
>> objectives of the same type looking at each other at a common focal
>> point with the right immersion medium between them. Then the overall
>> transmission would be half that of a single lens...
>>
>> Cheers Mark
>>
>> Andrew Resnick wrote:
>>> Search the CONFOCAL archive at
>>> http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>>>
>>> We've done similar measurements, it's not too difficult.
>>>
>>> The main trick is handling the large NA lenses.  Our setup was light
>>> source -> objective -> integrating sphere -> spectrometer.  After
>>> normalizing to the source, we obtained really good data.  It's
>>> pretty easy, actually.
>>>
>>> Andy
>>>
>>>
>>> At 08:45 AM 8/31/2007, you wrote:
>>>> Search the CONFOCAL archive at
>>>> http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>>>>
>>>> Dear all,
>>>>
>>>> one of the main differences of objectives is their transmission
>>>> efficiency at certain wavelengths. One way to compare this is the
>>>> trial-and-error method, however, this is not straight forward.
>>>>
>>>> My idea is to use a combination of spectrophotometer and a lamp
>>>> with a more or less even spectra (i.e. Xenon) on some kind of
>>>> optical bench. This would make the setup independent from the
>>>> manufacturer. Beside the distance between the light source and the
>>>> detector, there are obviously more things to consider: different
>>>> diameter of the back focal plane, different focal lenghts...
>>>>
>>>> I would like to hear about your opinion about how to measure
>>>> objective transmission. Have you ever done this in your lab? Did
>>>> you find a setup that worked for you?
>>>>
>>>> cheers,
>>>> Michael
>>>
>>> Andrew Resnick, Ph. D.
>>> Instructor
>>> Department of Physiology and Biophysics
>>> Case Western Reserve University
>>> 216-368-6899 (V)
>>> 216-368-4223 (F)
>>
>> Andrew Resnick, Ph. D.
>> Instructor
>> Department of Physiology and Biophysics
>> Case Western Reserve University
>> 216-368-6899 (V)
>> 216-368-4223 (F)