Re: Objective phosphorescence

Posted by Craig Brideau on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/Objective-phosphorescence-tp7587588p7587600.html

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Great points Zdenek. As you say, it seems unusual in a modern objective. I
wonder if there is an internal focus within the lens cluster? Otherwise I'm
trying to figure out how you'd get sufficient energy density within the
glass of the lens for these effects. I suppose if the laser is powerful
enough a focus might not be necessary. Ben also mentioned using a singlet
lens and getting the same result, so perhaps the laser power is high enough
or Ben's particular configuration is sensitive/fast enough?

Craig

On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 9:25 AM, <[hidden email]> wrote:

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> Hi Craig,
> I'm not that surprised, I've seen luminiscence (in the 0.1 ms range) from
> glass coverslips in a two-photon setup. You won't see this effect in a
> confocal microscope unless you use strong laser power, high gain, and focus
> somewhere into the glass (but be careful, the coverslip chips off easily if
> you focus your 2P laser to the glass-water interface :-).
>
>
> And it's well known that some lenses are better for fluorescence imaging
> than others. You won't see the luminiscence decay with a widefield
> microscope, the cameras are usually not fast enough. It will just increase
> the background in your images. But, to be honest, I would expect this
> effect
> to be extremely weak for modern lenses...
>
> I would definitely double check the LED, too. Many UV LEDs show lot of
> luminescence. But if Ben is using DMD to control the illumination (not the
> LED itself), this can probably be ruled out, and the DMD itself should be
> pretty fast (10 us ?)...
>
> Best, zdenek
>
> --
> Zdenek Svindrych, Ph.D.
> Research Associate - Imaging Specialist
> Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
> Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
>
> ---------- Původní e-mail ----------
> Od: Craig Brideau <[hidden email]>
> Komu: [hidden email]
> Datum: 21. 11. 2017 10:17:12
> Předmět: Re: Objective phosphorescence
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> That is quite an unusual finding, Ben. It would be interesting to try a
> fused silica lens to see if that gives the same result or not. Glass can
> exhibit all sorts of emissions at shorter wavelength but I have never seen
> this particular situation. Some LEDs use fluorescence or phosphorescence in
> their emission but you seem to have ruled that out. Fused silica *should*
> be pure enough to avoid issues at that wavelength.
>
> Craig
>
>
> On Nov 20, 2017 8:34 PM, "Benjamin E Smith" <[hidden email]>
> wrote:
>
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> Hey microscopists,
> We observed an odd phenomenon today on a microscope and was wondering if
> anyone else has ever seen it. We were using a DMD do a full field flash
> with 420nm light during the flyback of the scanning mirror on a 2P imaging
> rig. We noticed that after the light was turned off, there was a
> millisecond long slewing of the signal that looked a lot like
> phosphorescence. In the following image, you can see that the LED is on
> for the first portion of the scan, then turns off and the apparent
> afterglow: https://goo.gl/2ENHwL
>
> This afterglow was also apparent with an oscilloscope looking at the PMT
> and fast mirror signals: https://goo.gl/2AMsvB
>
> We then systematically removed components from the optical path, and
> cleaned everything, and we were eventually able to determine that the glass
> in the objective itself was glowing, where if the objective was removed and
> the DMD image was shined onto a piece of lens paper or metal, the afterglow
> went away:
> https://goo.gl/arXYF5
> https://goo.gl/cVo2Ev
>
> The final nail in the coffin to our suspicions was when we then mounted
> a plano-convex N-BK7 lens onto the microscope and the effect came back, and
> the thicker the lens, the stronger the effect. Also, the effect went away
> when we used 540nm light.
>
> With a bit of internet searching I also came across this paper that
> confirms there is some visible fluorescence in glass due to trace elements:
> http://www.schott.com/d/advanced_optics/87330898-4e56-
> 4d70-965a-3f03c7bc0c80/1.1/schott_tie-36_fluorescence_of_
> optical_glass_us.pdf
>
> Even when I saw the slew, and the first thing that came to mind was
> phosphorescence, the last thing that came to mind was that the glass in the
> objective itself was the offender, so I wanted to post this to both give
> other people a heads-up, and also to see if anyone else has run into this
> phenomenon.
>
> Cheers,
> Ben Smith
>
> --
> Benjamin E. Smith, Ph. D.
> Imaging Specialist, Vision Science
> University of California, Berkeley
> 195 Life Sciences Addition
> Berkeley, CA 94720-3200
> Tel (510) 642-9712
> Fax (510) 643-6791
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>