Gräfelfing (Germany), December, 19th 2006
Oligochrome – the brightest wavelength switching light source
TILL Photonics GmbH has introduced a new scientific grade light source, the Oligochrome. It features an exceptionally stable xenon light source combined with a galvanometer-based wavelength switching device. Changing the light-path through 5 different filter slots is achieved in 1 ms, thus allowing the user to carry out ultrafast ratio imaging experiments or other measurements requiring high speed and real time performance.
The Oligochrome is much brighter than comparable devices, yet with its long-life lamp and its durable quartz fiber its cost of ownership is significantly lower. It comes with a high stability 150 watt xenon arc lamp and features an advanced optics concept. This ensures that all light delivered by the fiber is available in the specimen plane and does not get lost elsewhere in the microscope. Lamp exchanges are rare - to keep running cost low, a xenon arc lamp featuring an average lifetime of 2000 hours was chosen – and are facilitated by the usage of prealigned lamps. All 5 filter slots are optically equivalent, avoiding the intensity variability encountered with other devices. Filters are easily exchanged without having to unscrew complicated locking devices. By leaving one slot empty you gain white light capability.
The Oligochrome possesses the same built-in DSP-based intelligence known from other high-end TILL light sources. It allows you to make your Oligochrome the heart of a protocol- driven real-time imaging system. In case you are content with less sophisticated control features the Oligochrome also understands the DG-4 command language.
The Oligochrome is coupled to the microscope via a service free, quartz based light guide that eliminates any heat and vibration transfer. The combination of the advanced condensers, the quartz light guide and the high stability 150 W xenon lamp delivers the most efficient wavelength switching device to date. TILL Photonics offers a broad range of condensers for almost all major microscopes on the market.
TILL Photonics, founded in 1993 by the current head of the Bioimaging Center of the University of Munich, Rainer Uhl, develops and markets high-end light sources, imaging systems and a novel microscope platform concept, the iMIC, all designed for the life sciences. TILL’s light sources have always set new standards with regards to speed, brightness and stability of the light output.