Safe to run multiphoton laser at 100% power for overnight continuous imaging?

Posted by Moulding, Dale on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/Safe-to-run-multiphoton-laser-at-100-power-for-overnight-continuous-imaging-tp7588726.html

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Dear list,

I've been asked to run our 2 photon laser (Mai Tai eHP DeepSee) at full power (3W) non-stop over night to scan a large sample.
When doing ablations we run at 100% and I hadn't even given it a second thought, as the ablations are over in a flash.
However, continuously (4 to 16 hours) running 100% 800nM at 3W I'm concerned we may damage the optics of the system. It will be on a Zeiss Examiner, going through Zeiss's 10x0.5 or 20x1.0 water dippers.
Has anyone ever imaged / ablated with a 2P laser continuously at full power?
Should I be concerned that the objectives may be damaged?

Cheers

Dale


Dale Moulding PhD FRMS
ICH Light Microscopy Facility
Room W2.06, BDRC office
UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health
30 Guilford St
London WC1N 1EH
Mob: [phone]
Tel: [phone]
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ich/core-scientific-facilities-centres/confocal-microscopy