Ultra-stable deformable mirrors are key to long-term microscopy and wavefront analysis. In adaptive optics, the shape of the thin, reflective membrane inside Deformable Mirrors (DMs) and, eventually, their generated wavefront strongly depends on the environment, especially the variation of the ambient temperature in the laboratory. This behavior is particularly problematic when the deformable mirror is operated in an open-loop mode. In this case, the DM is expected to keep its shape constant for prolonged intervals of time, e.g. in single molecule localization super resolution microscopy, where even smallest changes of the Point Spread Function (PSF) might lead to artefacts.
To eliminate such PSF changes over time, Imagine Optic developed a stabilized version of its MIRAO 52E deformable mirror. MIRAO 52E is a perfect choice for bioimaging applications where its large stroke and 52 electromagnetic actuators allow the user to precisely correct for large and complex aberrations. The new version of this mirror, MIRAO 52ES, holds the same advantages but provides high stability over time.
Typically, even when the ambient temperature fluctuates by more than 4 degrees, the wavefront generated by MIRAO 52ES in open-loop (fixed WF shape) shows smaller than 10nm RMS total variation over the course of 12 hours. Even repeated switch-on and switch-off cycles do not induce any visible changes in the wavefront – the mirror reaching the target wavefront value within 10nm RMS. This makes this deformable mirror a perfect choice for bioimaging applications such as super resolution microscopy, light sheet microscopy and any other microscopy type which requires long-term maintaining of a specific wavefront shape.
Reference to the technical note
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