DIVE technical specifications

Objective lenses

Objective lenses for routine slide specimens

The objective lenses in the table below are installed in non-adjacent positions in the standard 6-position nosepiece for objective lenses with M25 threads. Objective lenses are not installed in all positions to prevent damage to adjacent lenses as the objective lens is focused.

MagnificationTypeNumerical ApertureImmersionWorking Distance (mm)
20xHC PL APO CS20.75Air0.62
40xHC PL APO CS21.3Oil0.24
63xHC PL APO CS21.4Oil0.14

There is also a 10x HC PL APO CS2 0.4 NA air lens that can be installed in the standard nosepiece if required.

Specialist lenses for cleared specimens and deep imaging

The objective lenses below have a larger M32 thread. To install these lenses the standard nosepiece must be removed from the microscope and replaced with a single-position nosepiece. Hence only one of these lenses can be installed at any one time. They have motorised correction collars which can be adjusted from within the software to correct for refractive index mismatches.

Magnification Type Numerical Aperture Immersion Working Distance (mm) 
25xHC IRAPO L motCORR1.0Water dipping2.6
25xHC FLUOTAR L motCORR VISIR1.0Clarity6
20xHC APO L0.95BABB1.95

Note that the 6 mm working distance of the Clarity lens will mean that any sample imaged using this lens will most likely have to be mounted in a deep vessel.

Lasers

The DIVE has six visible solid state lasers for confocal microscopy.

 Wavelength

Colour 

Example dyes 

405VioletDAPI, Hoechst
448IndigoCFP
488BlueGFP, Alexa 488
514TurquoiseYFP
561YellowmCherry, Alexa 568
638RedCy5, Alexa 647

The infrared laser for multiphoton microscopy is a Coherent Discovery NX with a fixed line at 1040 nm that can be used for red dyes such as tdTomato and mCherry, and a tuneable line that can be adjusted between 660 nm and 1320 nm to excite a range of dyes. The fixed and tuneable lines can be used simultaneously.