Experimental Setup
Experimental Setup
Navigation
Experimental Setup
The experimental set-up was designed to be simple and relatively cheap to construct. The basic apparatus consists of a laser focused through an objective lens into a fluorescent sample. The excitation of the fluorescent molecules results in isotropic emission of fluorescent light, leading to part of the emission being fed back into the optical lens. A dichroic (color-selecting) mirror is used to separate the fluorescent light from the excitation beam.
The beam is first expanded to completely fill the objective lens. The sample is placed on the stage above the objective.
To isolate the excitation volume, either a thin sample or a confocal detection pinhole is used. Both allow only emission from a specific volume to enter the photomultiplier tube for detection.