J. Schneider et al., and S. Hell recently published a paper on STED microscopy, using EODs (electro-optical deflectors) to scan 512 x 512 pixels at frame rates of 1000 Hz. Compared to AODs, EODs offer the costumer-friendly advantage of not dispersing the the spectral components of the laser beam. Their main weakness is a small deflection angle. In her thesis from 2012, Jale Schneider gives an overview of manufacturers of EODs:
Company | deflection angle per kV [mrad] | aperture [mm] | capacity [pF] |
---|---|---|---|
Conoptics Inc. USA | 7.8 | 2.5 | 180 |
NTT Photonics Laboratories, Japan | 150 | 0.5 | 1000-2000 |
Leysop Ltd., GB | 1.5 | 3 | 50 |
Leysop Ltd., GB | 3 | 2 | 50 |
Leysop Ltd., GB | 5 | 1 | 50 |
Quantum Technologies, USA | 3.5 | 3 | 100 |
AdvR Inc., USA | 24 | < 0.8 | < 100 |
For resonant scanning, the aperture is ~ 5 mm, the deflection angle 90-260 mrad (depending on resonant frequency).
The capacity of the crystal displayed in the table comes into play indirectly, with a smaller capacitance demanding less from the high-voltage driver system of the EOD. In the appendix of her thesis, Jale Schneider also gives an overview of commercial high-voltage driver systems, although for her work she custom-built one.
Maybe at some point, this will become interesting for voltage imaging in dendrites. Assume one could drive the Conoptics EOD with 5 kV, and let’s further assume a 60x objective (focal length of ca. 3 mm) and a scan lens/tube lens system with magnification 3x. Then one has a 7.5 mm diameter beam on the back focal plane, and a FOV in the sample of ca. (3 mm)/3*tan(5*0.0078 rad) = 40 μm. Such a system would be an alternative to the AOD-based approach, which was, for instance, used by Arthur Konnerth’s lab for kHz calcium imaging of dendritic spines (250 × 80 pixels, field of view = 28 × 9 μm, 40x objective).
[Update] It seems that this estimation is only approximately correct. As described in the thesis cited above, the Conoptics EOD can use the 2.5 mm aperture only for a non-deflected beam. It seems that even for a +- 7.2 mrad deflection, the maximum unclipped beam diameter is only 1.5 mm.