Upgrade of the BD FACS ARIA IIu flow cytometer

Upgrade the BD FACS ARIA Ilu cytometer with an optical board equipped with five lasers and the optical and optomechanical elements needed for positioning, mixing and modification of the laser beams, specifically for:

• user-adjustable beam collimation adjustment for each laser independently
• independent horizontal and vertical beam translation of all installed lasers within the required range
• independent angular deflection of the beam of all installed lasers within the required range
• ensuring the elliptical shape of the output laser beams by means of a set of optical elements

In November 2019, as part of the upgrade of the BD FACS ARIA IIu flow cytometer, we delivered an optical table with the installation of compact continuous OBIS lasers from Coherent and optical and optomechanical components from CHROMA and Thorlabs for the service laboratory of flow cytometry at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the CAS.

The excitation part of the optical table consisted of five laser sources, whose beams were brought together into a single optical path using optical components, guided into a periscope and focused into a flow capillary. The optical plate was designed with all mounting components arranged in such a way that it could be attached to the existing optical table of the flow cytometer in a predefined area defined for installation and to allow any modification of the output laser beams by fine adjustment with an Allen or micrometer.

The assembly also included a custom-built mounting plate and bracket with colour-coded independent switches for lasers of the required wavelengths and holes for mounting the existing cytometer covers.

Components:

• OBIS laser 405 nm 100 mW LX
• OBIS laser 445 nm 75 mW LX
• OBIS laser 488 nm 150 mW LX
• OBIS laser 561 nm 150 mW LS
• OBIS laser 637 nm 140 mW LX
• Thorlabs opto-mechanical components
• CHROMA optical components