LaVision Biotec's Ultramicroscope represents an entirely new class of imaging system, created by combining pioneering ideas from the last century with today's technical concepts. It offers exceptional new opportunities for:

With LaVision BioTec’s Ultramicroscope, you can handle samples even a centimeter in size, yet with sub-cellular resolution. Based on a technique originally developed for particle analysis in 1903*, it has been refined this century for optical sectioning of large biological samples.

LaVision BioTec’s Ultramicroscope utilizes a thin sheet of light to excite biological samples while the fluorescence light is detected with a CCD-equipped microscope perpendicularly to the illuminated area. By moving the sample through the sheet and taking pictures at each depth, one generates a 3D image at cellular resolution in whole organs, using fluorescent proteins, fluorescent dyes or autofluorescence!

To date juvenile mouse brain, complete mouse embryos as well as whole fruit flies have been successfully analyzed. A few articles have yet been published based on sheet illumination of biological samples, so the field is open! Whether you want to chart neuronal networks, characterize phenotypes, study vascularization, or something else as yet untested, this is the emerging technology for you!

The Ultramicroscope can be customized to your application! Please ask for: high speed cameras, incubation chambers for in vivo work and high resolution optics.

Edmund Optics (EO) , the premier provider of optical components, have introduced the new TECHSPEC® Near UV Achromatic Lenses . These high performance lenses provide excellent transmission in the 345-700 nm range. They are specifically designed to minimize the spot size for polychromatic illumination in the 345-550 nm region. Also released are the new TECHSPEC® Hot Mirrors and Cold Mirrors. Both mirrors feature a multi-layer dielectric coating on a precision Borofloat substrate. To further enhance the mirrors’ performance, all mirrors offer a high efficiency Anti-Reflective coating on the rear surface, providing less than 1% reflection over the entire transmission range.

From the CVI-Melles Griot website: "It's the 50th Anniversary of the laser and CVI Melles Griot wants to celebrate 2010 with you! We want to know how you helped shape, were influenced by, or interfaced with the laser world as we know it today. And, perhaps most importantly, we want to share your stories with our community.

CVI Melles Griot invites you to share items such as:

• Laser laboratory triumphs
• Non-lethal lab accidents
• Funny stories
• Patents and papers using the first lasers
• Pictures, videos, or napkins with your Nobel Prize winning work sketched out

Get creative! Submit your story today and receive you FREE Maxwell Equations Anniversary Gift! Qualified submissions will be posted onto the CVI MG website and three winners each month will be chosen each month to receive a $50.00 gift card. Just click here to share your story."

Responding to the expanding requirements of new lasers and new applications, NoIR announces a series of newly certified LaserShield laser goggles for protection against ultra fast picosecond and femtosecond laser and for high power pulses. According to stringent EN207 European standards, tested by independent laboratories and certified by the DIN-Certco, these polymer NoIR LaserShields will not bleach or fail for a minimum of 10 seconds, retaining high optical densities and affording high levels of protection.

The new Gentec-EO FLASH Handheld Laser Probe is fast as a flash, literally. With a response time at least 2 times shorter than most of the competition, the FLASH allows the user to take more measurements in less time. Depending on the power measured, readings can be taken one after the other. There’s no waiting, no downtime. Now that’s efficiency. You can even let the FLASH work for you, with its automated hand-free operation capability. The FLASH’s 5 seconds measurement time (for the 500 W model) allows for multiple measurements before having to cool it down. Its very low noise level of 0.1 W allows the user to accurately measure power down to 2 W (for the 500 W model). With its all-metal body and the highest damage thresholds of its class, the FLASH is sure to have a long life, even in the most hostile environements! Tested 5 times per face for drop tests at table height (86 cm).

Venteon Femtosecond Laser Technologies manufacture extremely stable femtosecond laser platforms, including the Venteon:Pulse One CP with integrated Carrier Enhanced Phase (CEP) stabilization system.

This system includes, in addition to an octave-spanning oscillator, an f-to-2f interferometer for generating the required fCEO beat signal with excellent signal-to-noise ratio and all necessary stabilization and control electronics. Due to the octave-spanning output spectrum the CEP-lock can be done directly without any additional spectral broadening or the need for difference frequency generation in a nonlinear crystal. An accurate filtering of the spectral wings, needed for the f-to-2f self-referencing technique, allows for more than 90 % of the original output power remaining with unchanged beam quality for subsequent experiments.

The VENTEON | PULSE : ONE CP can now also be ordered with an option to stabilize the carrier-envelope-offset frequency to zero generating a pulse train with constant CEP. It is the first commercial system of this kind with unique specifications. This system allows for field sensitive experiments at full oscillator power and repetition rate without the need for pulse picking. The CP Edition includes an extended water-cooled breadboard with reserved space for a pump laser installation within the laser enclosure and a direct location of the interferometer next to the oscillator.

Zomega Terahertz Corporation develop and deploy terahertz-based technology solutions for research, defense and industry. These include both custom and pre-designed system using Time-Domain Spectroscopy and CW techniques in both point measurement and imaging applications. Terahertz technology is rapidly finding acceptance in a wide suite of applications, from non-destructive testing to security screening for explosives or other materials. Zomega's innovative products include the mini-Z compact THz TDS system (pictured above), which offers true turn-key operation and potential for integratiion into larger systems requiring THz capability. The mini-Z produces and measures pulsed terahertz waves from 0.1 to 4.0 THz using time domain spectroscopy techniques in both transmission and reflection geometries with a waveform measurement up to 20Hz.

Ocean Optics sensor systems are ushering in a new generation of low-cost, portable chemical-sensing devices. Advances in chemical detection technology, particularly in optical fluorescence, have led to the introduction of cost-effective, highly sensitive oxygen sensors which are proving an excellent alternative to traditional electrochemical techniques. The Ocean Optics NeoFox Phase Measurement System is a fluorescence based optical sensor system which can help reduce costs, improve stability and make calibration easier in a wide variety of oxygen sensing applications. Three NeoFox sensor formulations are available:

• Foxy- for general use application (water quality, wasterwater, food and beverage)
• HIoxy-for hydrocarbon environments (gases, fuels etc.)
• Fospor- for highly sensitive low oxygen concentration detection.

Quantum Composers have announced the release of a new high voltage module AT45 for their 9520 Series Digital Delay Pulse Generator. Featuring faster rise/fall times (<2ns), higher voltage (to 45V), longer pulse widths and increased repetition rate it offers significant advantages over the AT35. The 9520 is unique in the industry, as the only DPG designed with modular architecture, and is available with a range of output modules, including optical output, high current and high voltage.

Photon scattering creates lasers in fibre optic cabling

First light for germanium laser

Laser labels for fruit and vegies

Laser invention to fingerprint oil

Laser beak man conquers TV

We've been impressed by the new Oculus USB Photodetectors from our friends at Ames Photonics. Now, Ames have announced the Oculus Challenge: two Oculus systems will be given away free to customers who come up with the most creative and innovative applications for this smart new device. From the Ames website:

"Oculus is the latin word for "eye", and in classical times, referred to the round opening at the top of the roof of the Pantheon and other buildings. Oculus is also the name for Ames Photonics innovative new USB detector system, released commercially in 2009. This convenient, plug-n-play laboratory essential is proving to be a very popular tool in a wide range of applications. For example, at Swinburne University, in Melbourne, Australia, researchers have used the Oculus in conjunction with other Ames Photonics tools to detect and measure output from a multibeam ultrafast laser spectroscopy experiment. Oculus provides the means to enable correlated single-pulse measurements, providing an efficient, cost-effective solution to this problem.  Read their report here.

This creative application of the technology behind the Oculus has given us an idea: We are inviting our customers to send us, via email, their idea for an application which best exploits the unique capabilities of the Oculus USB photodetector. We have two Oculus systems to be given away, free of charge, which will go to the two submissions which our judges deem to be the most interesting."