Transcript Slide 1

BMS 631 – Lecture 5
Properties and Applications of Light Sources
At the conclusion of this lecture students will have an excellent understanding of the
technical components and operation of flow cytometers with relation to the nature of light
and its properties.
Slides are designed w/o backgrounds to be printable on a B/W printer. Material relies heavily on Shapiro’s
Practical Flow Cytometry, Wiley-Liss, 1994 or 2003 (4th Ed)
The WEB version of these slides can be found on
http://www.cyto.purdue.edu/class
J. Paul Robinson, PhD
Professor of Immunopharmacology
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Purdue University
last modified February 2, 2005
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Learning Objectives
• Identify the types of light sources used in
flow cytometers
• Define the nature of each light source
• Understand the advantages and
disadvantages of each system
• Understand the dangers involved with
lasers
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Illumination Sources
• Lamps
• Xenon-Mercury
• Mercury
• Lasers
•
•
•
•
•
Argon Ion (Ar)
Krypton (Kr)
Helium Neon (He-Ne)
Helium Cadmium (He-Cd)
YAG (solid State)
• Diodes
• Variety of wavelengths, cheap
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
3rd Shapiro p 98
4th Shapiro p 124
Optics - Light Sources
Epilumination in Flow Cytometers
• Arc-lamps
– provide mixture of wavelengths that must be filtered
to select desired wavelengths
– provide milliwatts of light
– inexpensive, air-cooled units
– provide incoherent light
3rd Shapiro p 98
4th Shapiro p 126
[RFM]
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Mercury Arc Lamps
Lens
Arc
Lens
© J.Paul Robinson
© J.Paul Robinson
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Arc Lamp Excitation
Spectra Xe Lamp
Irradiance at 0.5 m (mW m-2 nm-1)

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Hg Lamp





3rd Shapiro p 99
4th Shapiro p 125
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Lasers
Noncoherent light
Coherent light
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Lasers Hazards
• Laser light is very dangerous and should be treated as a
significant hazard
• You should use laser protection goggles when using open lasers
• Water cooled lasers have additional hazards in that they require
high current and voltage in addition to the water hazard
• Dye lasers use dyes that can be potentially carcinogenic
3rd Shapiro p 114
4th Shapiro p 148
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Spot Illumination - Lasers
• Advantages are that the pathway is easier to define (you
know where the light is going !!)
• It is usually monochromatic light so excitation filters are
not needed
• Brighter source of light than arc lamps (higher radiance)
• Spot size (d) can be calculated by formula
– d=1.27(F/D) where D is the beam diameter in mm and F is the
focal distance from the lens
• For a 125 mm focal length spherical lens at 515 nm is 55
m and 61 m at 458 nm
3rd Ref: Shapiro p 103
4th Ref: Shapiro p 130
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Laser Power & Noise
Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
• Laser light is coherent and monochromatic (same
frequency and wavelength)
• This means the emitted radiation is in phase with and
propagating in the same direction as the stimulating
radiation
• ION lasers use electromagnetic energy to produce and
confine the ionized gas plasma which serves as the lasing
medium.
• Lasers can be continuous wave (CW) or pulsed (where
flashlamps provide the pulse)
• Laser efficiency is variable - argon ion lasers are about
0.01% efficient (1 W needs 10KW power)
3rd Ref: Shapiro p 106
4th Shapiro p 136, 147
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Helium-Neon Lasers
• He-Ne - low power,
no cooling needed
• Cheap, mostly emit
red light at 633 nm
• Generally 0.1 W to 50
mW power
• Lines available
include green
(543nm) and red
594nm or 611 nm
© J.Paul Robinson
3rd Shapiro p 110
4th Shapiro 141
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Helium-Cadmium Lasers
• He-Cd laser
• 5-200mW power usually at 325 nm (UV) or
441 nm (blue)
• Wall power, air cooled
• Uses cadmium vapor as the lasing
medium
• Major problem is noise (plasma noise
between 300-400 kHz)
• RMS noise mostly about 1.5%
• Good for ratio measurements (pH or
calcium because power fluctuations don’t
matter here
He-Cd laser
© J.Paul Robinson
3rd Ref: Shapiro p 111
4th Ref: Shapiro p 142
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
405 nm & 375 nm Lasers
• These lasers are long
lived and quite stable
• Can be fiber optically
delivered but the fibers
may not last long (1000
hours)
Images from Point Source,
www.point-source.com
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Solid State Lasers
• Neodynymium-YAG (Yttrium aluminum garnet) lasers
• Lasing medium is a solid rod of crystalline material
pumped by a flashlamp or a diode laser
• 100s mWs at 1064 nm
• Can be doubled or tripled to produce 532 nm or 355 nm
this is the typical green laser pointer
• Noisy - and still reasonably expensive (particularly the
double and tripled versions)
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
About new diode lasers…
The question:
• Which source of red >light is nowadays more suitable for flow cytometers in terms of
power, stability (noise), life, maintenance and prize? Facscalibur has a red diode 635nm
but I think that new LSR is provided with an He-Ne laser 633nm.
• The shortest answer is that whichever laser the manufacturer will sell you with some
reasonable warranty should do the job. He-Ne lasers are larger, consume more power,
and usually cost more per milliwatt than red diodes; they have nicer beam shapes
(TEM00), and they don't have much (but do have some) long wavelength incoherent
emission at wavelengths in the region of some of the fluorescence you're trying to excite
with the primary beam.
• Noise on air-cooled He-Ne's with reasonable power is about 1% RMS. Diodes, while very
small, more energy-efficient, and less expensive than He-Ne's, have ugly beams, which
can be made reasonably smooth with appropriate optics, and can be made very quiet (a
few hundredths of one per cent RMS noise), but they do emit long wavelength LED glow
which usually requires that they be used with band pass excitation filters, and they can
become unstable due to mode hopping.
• Diodes also vary over a range of a few nanometers in emission wavelength (635-640 nm);
He-Ne's are really 633 nm, period. Both He-Ne and diode lasers should be good for over
10,000 hours of operation, but there seems to have been a higher failure rate among
diodes, at least until recently. In general, the user isn't the one who puts the red laser into
her or his instrument; the cytometer manufacturers do that, and they deal with the laser
system manufacturers to get the specs they need.
• The FACSCalibur has extremely good red fluorescence sensitivity using a diode, and, if
I'm not mistaken, it is a diode that is the standard red excitation source in the LSR, which
also uses a He-Cd laser (*not* He-Ne) for UV - but if B-D is putting a red He-Ne into the
LSR instead of the diode - possibly for more power - it should work just fine.
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Source: From: Howard Shapiro ([email protected])
Date: Thu Feb 07 2002 - 19:38:14 EST
http://www.cyto.purdue.edu/hmarchiv/current/1039.htm
Argon and Krypton Ion Lasers
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Brewster’s Angle
• Brewster’s angle is the angle at which the reflected light is
linearly polarized normal to the plane incidence
• At the end of the plasma tube, light can leave through a
particular angle (Brewster’s angle) and essentially be
highly polarized
• Maximum polarization occurs when the angle between
reflected and transmitted light is 90o
thus Ør + Øt = 90o
since sin (90-x) = cos x
Snell’s provides (sin Øi / cos Øi ) = n2/n1
Ør = tan -1 (n2/n1)
Ør is Brewster’s angle
3rd Shapiro p 82
4th Shapiro p 135
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Brewster’s Angle
© J.Paul Robinson
High
reflector
(back)
http://www.mic-d.com/java/brewster3d/
© J.Paul Robinson
Output
coupler
(front)
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Layout of Elite Cytometer
with 4 Lasers (top view)
353 nm
325 nm
UV\Beam Splitter
computer
488 nm
633 nm
He-Cd Laser 325/441
395 longPass
Argon Laser 353/488 nm
(High speed sorting)
633 Beam Splitter
He-Ne Laser 633 nm
Argon Laser 488 nm
Mirror
Optical bench
Height Translators
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Laser focusing
• There are several standards for creating a
laser beam on a flow stream
• This has to do with the intensity of the
focused beam
• There is also the issue of even cell
illuminationstream
Want this as ‘flat” as possible
15 microns
60 microns
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Laser alignment
Argon
laser
Beckman-Coutler’s Xl and MCL optical system
He-Ne
laser
A “translator’ can be used to move a beam in either the
Vertical or horizontal direction without changing the alignment
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Use of Fiber Optics in Light
delivery
B-D Aria optical delivery
via fiber optics
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Light Propagation & Vergence
• Considering a point source emission of light, rays
emanate over 4pi steradians
• If the ray of light travels through a length L of a medium of
RI n, the optical path length S=Ln (thus S represents the
distance light would have traveled in a vacuum in the
same time it took to travel the distance L in the medium
(RI n).
• Rays diverge because the come from a point source
• Vergence is measured in diopters
3rd Shapiro p 93
4th Shapiro p 119
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt
Summary and Learning
Objectives covered
• Each instrument has a unique light path
• Some instruments use optical benches but
they typically build their own bench
• The majority of instruments use “free
space” optics and air cooled lasers
• Some are using fibers but there are
problems in delivering lower wavelengths
© 1990-2005 J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Lecture0005.ppt