Laser Scanning Microscopy (LSM)
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Laser microscopy couples a laser to a microscope, allowing a variety of configurations and imaging modes.

Topographical map of a Canadian penny taken with 20 depth slices at intervals of 1.5µm.

Typical applications:

• Non-contact surface roughness characterization
• High-resolution spatial mapping
• High-resolution fluorescent imaging
  
  

Equipment:
Zeiss 310 Confocal Laser Microscope
Excimer Laser Microscope at 193nm

Technical Description:
Optical microscopy done in LSM (Laser Scanning Mode) and CLSM (Confocal Laser Scanning Mode) achieves high resolution and signal-to-noise ratios and permits a wide range of qualitative and quantitative measurements on difficult samples, including topography mapping, extended depth of focus, and 3-D visualisation (red/blue).

Fluorescence microscopy involves the excitation of the sample at one wavelength, in this case 365nm, and observation at another wavelength, typically in the visual spectral range.

Fluorescent Microthermal Imaging (FMI) is based on the fluorescence yield of EuTTA. This europium chelate fluoresces at 612nm with temperature-dependent intensity when excited by UV light at 365nm. Image processing of the hot/cold image provides temperature mapping of surfaces to a spatial resolution better than one micrometer.

Excimer laser microscopy illuminates in the deep ultraviolet and permits materials processing, such as laser ablation, at very high spatial resolution.

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