The Advanced Photon Source
a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility

Facilities: Visible Light Microscopy

Introduction

To support experiments carried out at the Microscopy beamlines, we have several visible light microscopes available for both inside and general users. Some of these instruments (in particular the Leica microscope) require a certain level of training before they can be used, so if you anticipate to require the use of one of these instrumentsit would be best to check with either beamline contacts or the contact person listed below on their availability, and training.

Instrumentation

2 Leica stereo microscopes

  • typically used to mount or work on specimens
  • pre-align specimens for micro-tomography (as performed at 2BM)

Olympus BH-2 visible light microscope (upright, primarily for materials science)

  • incident light bright field and differential interference contrast (DIC)
  • transmitted light bright field
  • digital encoders for stages
  • Objectives:(mag/numerical aperture (NA))

5x/0.13 NeoSPlan NIC
10x/0.25 NeoSPlan NIC
20x/0.4 ULWDNeoSPlan
50x/0.55 N ULWDNeoSPlan
100x/0.8 N ULWDNeoSPlan

  • Illumination: 100W halogen
  • CCD camera: Olympus DP12 (colour using Bayer-Mosaic)

Leica DMXRE visible light microscope (upright, primarily for life sciences)

  • incident light bright field and differential interference contrast (DIC)
  • transmitted light bright field, DIC, phase contrast
  • fluorescence microscopy
  • digital stages, record object position (minimum x/y/z step size: 0.1 micron)
  • kinematic specimen mounts compatible with the 2-ID microprobes
  • Objectives:(mag/numerical aperture (NA)/ work dist (mm))

4x/0.1/ 26.2 C plan
10x/0.3/ 11.0 HC PL fluotar; phase contrast (PH), DIC (transmission and reflection)
20x/0.4/ 1.9-3.2 N plan L PH, DIC, long working distance, adjustable correction for cover slip thickness (~0-2 mm)
40x/0.55/1.9-3.3 N plan L PH, DIC, long working distance, adjustable correction for cover slip thickness (~0-2 mm)
100x/0.9/ 0.27 N plan DIC, NO cover slip for fluroescence and coverslips:
20x/0.5/1.15 HC PL fluotar PH, DIC, plan-neofluar, cover slip thickness 0.17 mm
100x/1.3/0.1 PL FL fluotar PH, DIC, plan-neofluar, cover slip thickness 0.17 mm, oil immersion

  • Condensers (two heads): 0.5 NA and 0.9 NA
  • Illumination: 100W halogen and 100W HBO
  • filter/reflector sets:

incident light bright field and DIC
transmitted light bright field and DIC
fluorescence filtersets (Chroma):
chroma 41001 high Q FITC/ GFP (also for Cy2 and similar)
chroma 31002 TRITC, rhodamine, Cy3
chroma 31000 DAPI/ Hoechst/ AMCA
chroma 31044v2 cyan fluorescent protein
chroma 41028 yellow fluorescent protein

  • CCD camera: Qimaging Retiga EXi (colour using a filter wheel)
Contacts

Olga Antipova - ph: 630.252.7993 ; email