Exploits evanescent wave illumination and advances in organelle-specific vital stains and fluorescence proteins to allow light microscopy at the molecular level
The Eclipse TE2000 series of inverted microscopes has been designed to accommodate Nikon's new Tirf (total internal reflection fluorescence) imaging module that enables observations at the level of individual molecules.
Both Tirf and epi-fluorescence illumination systems can be mounted simultaneously on an Eclipse TE2000 microscope, and users can switch easily between the two with no restriction on their individual capabilities.
The extendable structure of the Eclipse TE2000 makes it easy to incorporate laser light sources without having to modify the microscope.
The laser is introduced via a single-mode fibre cable, making it safe and easy to handle.
The Eclipse TE2000's optical system incorporates Noise Terminator technology to eliminate the possibility of stray incident light, which can otherwise interfere with the fluorescent signal, and enhances the observation of low intensity fluorescing molecules.
Avoiding temperature-induced changes in refractive index of the immersion oil, which could result in spherical aberration, Nikon's dedicated Tirf objective (60X, 1.45NA) has a correction collar that is calibrated at room temperature or physiological temperature.
Nikon's dedicated Tirf objective does not require the use of toxic benzene-containing immersion oils and uses conventional, rather than costly sapphire cover slips.
Tirf exploits evanescent wave illumination and advances in organelle-specific vital stains and fluorescence proteins, to excite a fluorophore in an extremely thin section of the specimen - typically less than 100nm.
The lack of fluorophore excitation beyond the evanescent wave results in an extremely high signal-to-noise ratio.
Nikon's Tirf imaging produces a high-contrast real-time image of labelled molecules.
Tirf enables the study of dynamic membrane associated events in living cells, the uptake and release of molecules between the membrane and extracellular fluid, the movement of cell organelles, and the study of biological or chemical events at solid/liquid boundaries.
