Leica Microsystems: Leica Science Lab

Science Lab

The knowledge portal of Leica Microsystems offers scientific research and teaching material on the subjects of microscopy. The content is designed to support beginners, experienced practitioners and scientists alike in their everyday work and experiments. Explore interactive tutorials and application notes, discover the basics of microscopy as well as high-end technologies – become part of the Science Lab community and share your expertise!

Acousto Optics in True Confocal Spectral Microscope Systems

Acousto-optical elements have successfully replaced planar filters in many positions. The white confocal, regarded as the fully spectrally tunable confocal microscope, was not possible without this…

Video Tutorial: How to Change the Bulb of a Fluorescence Lamp Housing

When applying fluorescence microscopy in biological applications, a lamp housing with mercury burner is the most common light source. This video tutorial shows how to change the bulb of a traditional…

Video Tutorial: How to Align the Bulb of a Fluorescence Lamp Housing

The traditional light source for fluorescence excitation is a fluorescence lamp housing with mercury burner. A prerequisite for achieving bright and homogeneous excitation is the correct centering and…

Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS)

Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy ( FCS ) measures fluctuations of fluorescence intensity in a sub-femtolitre volume to detect such parameters as the diffusion time, number of molecules or dark…

Image Processing for Widefield Microscopy

Fluorescence microscopy is a modern and steadily evolving tool to bring light to current cell biological questions. With the help of fluorescent proteins or dyes it is possible to make discrete…

White Light Laser

The perfect light source for confocal microscopes in biomedical applications has sufficient intensity, tunable color and is pulsed for use in lifetime fluorescence. Furthermore, it should offer means…

Controlling the TIRF Penetration Depth is Mandatory for Reproducible Results

The main feature of total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy is the employment of an evanescent wave for the excitation of fluorophores instead of using direct light. A property of the…

Basic Principles of Luminescence

There are a lot of light-emitting processes occurring in nature. Luminescence is an umbrella term for those kinds of events where light emission is not the result of high temperatures. This article…

TIRF image of brest carcinoma tumor cells expressing GFP tagged cell adhesion Molecule CD44 that is expressed on the cell membrane, imagined in TIRF.

Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) Microscopy

Total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) is a special technique in fluorescence microscopy developed by Daniel Axelrod at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in the early 1980s. TIRF microscopy…