Protective window for a confocal microscope?

Posted by Tomek Węgierski on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/Protective-window-for-a-confocal-microscope-tp7591445.html

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Dear All,
I am considering a purchase of a protective window for our Zeiss LSM800 and I would like to hear your advice whether this is a good idea, and if yes, which one to buy.
The reason is our LSM800 is on an inverted stand and we already got a leakage of oil once which went down onto Optovar. And this was despite my regular checks of objectives (both sides) for leaking oil and extensive education of users on how important it is not to use too much oil and to clean lenses, especially on inverted stands.
Zeiss Observer has a dummy slider with an opening for 32 mm filters. I hope, a protective window there should stop the oil, if the leakage happens again.
1) do you think placing a protective window in a confocal microscope is a good idea or not really, because the imaging will be affected? This would be in infinity space, so I guess it should not be detrimental....
2) which characteristics of protective window I should take into consideration (substrate, thickness, coating, flatness, surface quality, parallelism)? Currently I am inclined into protective glasses by Edmund Optics such as 1-mm thick MgF2-coated Sapphire window, which has high transmission, or 2-mm thick MgF2-coated B270 window, which has a bit worse transmission but better surface parameters (and is much cheaper).
best regards,
Tomasz


Tomasz Wegierski, PhD
International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
Trojdena 4, 02-109 Warsaw, POLAND
tel: [phone]
fax: [phone]
http://www.iimcb.gov.pl/