Pulsed STED lasers
best resolution, lowest laser power
Founded and managed by the inventors and developers of STED, at abberior we only accept the best possible performance of our microscopes. For STED, we rely on pulsed STED lasers because they outperform their continuous-wave counterparts in virtually any possible application, including gated- or lifetime-enhanced STED. Pulsed STED delivers the best possible resolution with the least amount of laser power, no matter what. Put simply, pulsed STED lasers are the clever way of doing STED.
1um
Confocal
STED
Description
Actin stain of mouse inner ear hair cells using abberior STAR RED Phalloidin.
Samples were prepared by Dr. Christian Vogl, InnerEarLab, UMG Göttingen, Germany.
Expert Devices:
Excitation Lasers
RAINBOW Detection
STED Lasers
2um
Confocal
STED
Description
Nuclear pore complex (green), Tom20 (red), and vimentin (white) in cultured mammalian cells.
Expert Devices:
STED Lasers
2um
Confocal
STED
Description
2-color 2D STED image of a cleared adult kidney sample of a rat. Shown is an image of a renal corpuscle showing Nephrin (red, abberior STAR 635P) structures inbetween the Podocin slits (green, AlexaFluor594).
Sample was prepared by D. Unnersjö Jess and H.G. Blom @ KTH Stockholm, Sweden.
2um
Confocal
STED
Description
Tom20 (red) and golgi (blue) in cultured mammalian cells
Expert Devices:
STED Lasers
2um
Confocal
STED
Description
Primary hippocampal neurons with cytoskeleton proteins labeled (magenta, alpha-Adducin, Abberior STAR 635P and green, ßII spectrin, Alexa 594).
Expert Devices:
STED Lasers
Why we only use
pulsed STED Lasers
With Pulsed STED, all STED photons are sent to the sample at a time when they make an impact — right after the excitation pulse. This is the only time where STED photons make sense physically, because the STED-photons can do their job before the excited molecule gets time to spontaneously fluoresce with low resolution.
When applying a continuous-wave (cw) STED beam, STED photons are unnecessarily spread out with respect to the lifetime of the dye and the most of them arrive either too early or too late. In fact, the majority of STED photons arrives at a time when most excited molecules have already emitted – they can do nothing good there, only harm!
Although there are methods (mostly based on lifetime sensing) to compensate for this physical shortcoming of cw-STED, they either achieve little or are based on heavy mathematical post-processing. In order not to compromise on the physical STED performance and to get the best possible resolution at minimum light dosages, pulsed STED lasers are mandatory. The physically superior data recorded this way is also a much better starting point for mathematical deconvolution.
Pulsed STED @ 775 nm
best possible STED resolution
A pulsed nanosecond STED laser at 775 nm. Suitable for superresolution imaging with fluorescent proteins, e.g. mCherry as well as imaging with organic dyes, e.g. Abberior STAR RED or STAR ORANGE. Resolution down to 20 nm; typical resolution < 30 nm
Pulsed STED @ 595 nm
live-cell imaging in top form
A pulsed nanosecond STED laser at 595 nm. Suitable for superresolution imaging with fluorescent proteins, e.g. GFP, YFP as well as imaging with organic dyes, e.g. Abberior STAR 440SX or STAR 488. Resolution down to 25 nm; typical resolution < 40 nm
Pulsed STED lasers outperform their continuous-wave counterparts, without a single exception.
You know a rule is valid when it’s simple!
Pulsed STED lasers offer the best possible resolution
Pulsed STED lasers reduce the light dose significantly
Use pulsed lasers to put STED light only where it’s needed: during the fluorescence lifetime of the dye! Because afterwards, it can only do harm.
描述 [描述] best resolution, lowest laser power