Mobius Photonics has delivered an upgraded fiber laser that produces visible light with 20MHz pulse repetition rate to a leading European research institute. Tailored for stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy experiments, the laser has been designed to improve imaging speed over prior STED set ups that used 1MHz Mobius lasers.
STED microscopy is a noninvasive microscopy technique that provides users with ultra-high-resolution images of biological samples. However, its application has been hampered by the availability of suitable light sources, as current technologies are limited by complexity, power, repetition rate, or wavelength.
Accordingly, research has focused on developing a system based on a novel laser source that could enhance the technique’s capabilities, specifically, the ability to generate ultra-high-resolution images with rapid throughput and to use fluorescent markers of choice.
Manuel Leonardo, co-founder and vice president of Mobius Photonics, said: “Our previous laser enabled STED researchers to access a wider variety of markers in their experiments and to generate very detailed images, but imaging speed was still an issue. This new system has been designed to produce images many times faster than previous set-ups, putting us in a more competitive position with today’s commercial STED systems.”
The Mobius Photonics laser is based on pulsed master-oscillator, fiber-power-amplifier (MOFPA) architecture.