They Go Through it With a Fine-Tooth Comb: PIFOC® Piezo Drives for Objectives

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5th August 2010

Source: Physik Instrumente (PI) GmbH & Co. KG

More and more techniques in microscopy, today, require an improved resolution. This often requires the combination of a large numerical aperture of the objective, that is a large clear aperture, and a large working distance along the optical axis. 3D images of living tissue are then possible, for example with the help of two-photon spectroscopy.

For this purpose, PI now offers a PIFOC® piezo Z-drive for objectives with a clear aperture of up to 29 mm. The versions of the proven P-725 and P-721 stage series allow travel ranges up to 400 µm while offering high dynamics and nanometer-level position resolution.

PIFOC® piezo Z-drives are fast positioners for the accurate motion of the objective or the sample in microscopy. For focusing purposes, either the imaging optics or the sample can be moved. PIFOC® piezo Z-drives for the objective can be very compact in size and do not affect the sample while focusing. Their outstanding qualities are:

· Response times of a few milliseconds

· Resolution of a few nanometers

· Simple integration in existing microscopy systems

PIFOC® drives are therefore ideally suited when it comes down to a high throughput and accuracy. Screening tasks in biotechnology, medical diagnostics or pharmacy, for example, require the analysis of up to a few hundreds of samples. The focusing of the individual samples, therefore, has to be fast. In confocal microscopy images of samples are generated in different focal planes and collated to one 3D image by using software. For this purpose, the position resolution of the piezo Z-drive has to be in the range of 10 nanometers (0.01 µm).