About the Leica TCS SP5 X

An Acousto Optical Beam Splitter (AOBS®) replaces fluorescent filters and beam splitters in the light path. It is a spectrally tunable element which is fast, switchable and without any moving parts. In combination with AOTF, the AOBS offers a more light efficient system. This optical element allows the excitation light to excite the sample and the emission passes straight through the crystal.

The Spectral Detector SP ® is free from barrier filters and secondary dichroic filters and therefore highly transparent and extremely sensitive. Light emitted from the sample is dispersed by a high efficient prism. The resultant spectrum is directed towards two tunable slits. Two motorized sliders acts as barriers and transmit a step-lessly tunable band to the sensor. The full spectrum can be split into several channels without any loss of energy. The Spectral Sliders offer a flexible system for wavelength discrimination which can be used to minimize cross talk. The SP5 has also a Tandem Scanner which comprises of a conventional scanner for high resolution morphology imaging (8kx8k) and a resonant scanner for fast imaging. Conventional speed ranges from 10-1400Hz whereby resonant speed is 8000Hz.

For laser excitation, the user has a choice of different lasers: a diode 405, a multiline Argon, a White Light Laser (WLL) and a Ti-sapphire IR laser. With white laser light, users can freely choose any excitation line within the continuous range of 470nm to 670nm in 1nm increments to perfectly match fluorophores with minimum cross-excitation, and turn down laser power to prevent specimen damage. There are up to eight excitation lines can be used simultaneously. The multiphoton excitation allows imaging of fluorophores deep into intact tissue (beyond the range of confocal microscopy). This penetration is due to the greatly reduced scattering of infrared light and the fact that excitation is restricted to the focal point of the pulsed laser.