Carl Zeiss has introduced the Laser Tirf 3 microscope system, which enhances the visualisation of near cell-membrane dynamic processes while maintaining optimum specimen-incubation conditions.
The system also allows single-molecule dynamic processes in cell-free systems to be observed.
Combining the microscope with techniques such as atomic force microscopy (AFM) allows it to be used in life sciences, biochemistry, molecular biology and biophysics.
A range of incubation options maintain viable conditions for live-cell experiments.
The laser module can be equipped with up to four solid-state lasers, is AOTF-controlled (acousto-optical tuneable filter) and can be operated from the Axiovision software interface.
The Tirf slider is available in two versions: manual or motorised and software controllable.
The motorised version permits a given illumination angle to be set with greater accuracy and speed than other current systems and the reproducible angle-setting results in reproducible penetration depths for the light beam.
The Tirf slider incorporates corrected beam-path, special filter sets and apochromatically corrected optics to guarantee maximum image quality.
AOTF control and angle setting are integrated into the 'Fast Image Acquisition' module of the Axiovision software to allow higher resolution images to be acquired within a given timeframe.
The Laser Tirf 3 builds on the attributes of the Laser Tirf, which combines Tirf and transmitted-light contrasting techniques, such as DIC and brightfield, and enables the sequential recording of image pairs.
Selectively exciting cellular fluorophores that are adsorbed, adhered, or bound to the surface and combining them with conventional epi-fluorescence allows researchers to relate surface effects to internal cellular structures.
