The new Compass 561 laser from Coherent delivers either 25mW or 40mW beams from a laser head measuring just 100 x 40 x 32.5mm. It is well suited to bioinstrumentation applications, including confocal microscopy and live cell imaging. In particular, the yellow wavelength enables solid-state access to fluorophores, such as rhodamine series and Alexa Fluor dyes, which traditionally could be excited with krypton ion lasers.
The laser exhibits a very low signal-to-noise ratio (<0.25 per cent RMS at 10Hz to 1GHz). High transverse mode quality (M²<1.2), coupled with excellent beam-pointing stability (<6μrad/°C), make it possible to achieve and maintain excellent throughput with microscope optics. The lasers are extremely rugged and reliable.