The Aurora: Light sheet fluorescence microscope allows imaging of large or small volume specimens over long periods of time with minimal photo-bleaching effects. Aurora utilizes an Airy beam to create the light sheet, which produces a field of view 20 times larger than the Gaussian beam (600 µm with a 20x detection objective) and 8 times larger than the Bessel10 beam, whilst still maintaining a sub 1 µm axial resolution comparable to that of the Gaussian and twice as good as the Bessel 10 beam (1). The Airy beam’s characteristic asymmetric excitation pattern creates lobes spreading the beam, lowering the overall light exposure to the sample resulting in 80% less photo-bleaching in comparison to the Gaussian beam (1). Furthermore, it only requires a single exposure per z slice compared to the multiple acquisitions required for some Bessel beam approaches which induce a higher photo-toxic effect. The inherent properties of the beam further contribute to the signal, deconvolution regains the spread lobes producing at least a 10 times improvement in signal to noise, enabling users to image live samples for longer over a larger field of view with minimized photo-damage. Due to the self-healing, non-linear, and non-diffractive propagation of the Airy beam it means that shadowing and striping, as observed in conventional Gaussian based systems, are not present allowing users to image a wider range of specimens in their natural state.

Fluorophore selection guide

Reservation System: MSquared Aurora Airy Light Sheet

Location: BioCity, 5th floor, room 5149