A polarimeter is used to characterize a sample by measuring the rotation of polarized light when it interacts with the sample. They can cost upwards of ~$10,000, but a $350 DIY high-resolution polarimeter has recently been detailed in a paper by Andrew Harvie , Tom Phillips, and John deMello. The bill of materials for the […]
Tag: Articles
$1200 for a Super Resolution Capable Microscope
A new paper shows the practicality of using Super Resolution Radial Fluctuation (SSRF) on an OpenFlexure Microscope. SSRF microscopy is a form of Super Resolution microscopy that relies on a post-processing method to generate a radiality map for each frame. This map is used to look for temporal correlations across frames to create an image […]
Easy Expansion of Field of View in Two-Photon Set Up
Two-photon micrsocopy is useful for reducing photo-damage and seeing deep into tissue samples. First patented in 1990 by Winfried Denk and James Strickler, it’s a technique that has been used for decades in neuroscience as a minimally invasive way to image neurons in real time. But we’ve already covered how to make one of those […]
An open-source combiner for inexpensive laser diodes
Scientific-grade lasers are incredibly costly components of modern microscopes. Inexpensive laser diodes are much cheaper, often less than $100, but they have high divergence and an asymmetrical intensity profile, which makes them difficult to efficiently couple into single-mode optical fibers. Instead, they are coupled into multimode fibers, which results in the appearance of laser speckles […]
A step-by-step guide to building a prism-type TIRF microscope
Total Internal Reflection Florescence (TIRF) Microscopy is a technique used to observe a very thin region of sample directly at the surface of an interface (coverslip) without obtaining background interference from the rest of the sample volume. Dalton Gibbs, Anisa Kaur, Anoja Megalathan, Kumar Sapkota, and Soma Dhakal have published a wonderful paper entitled “Build Your Own Microscope: Step-By-Step […]