The Nikon AXR with NSPARC is an inverted, laser scanning confocal microscope enclosed within an Oko Labs environmental chamber.
This microscope uses point scanning laser illumination, and a single optical pinhole is placed within the emission path at the conjugate focal plane to reject out-of-focus light. As a result, this microscope captures light from an individual optical section. For this reason, the Nikon AXR is exceptional for volumetric imaging of cells under adherent and 3D environments. Multiple optical sections can also be captured and combined to generate a 3D image. Compared to the spinning disc confocal, the diameter of the pinhole can be adjusted to match the excitation wavelength and objective of the system, which allows for much more accurate 3D images of thick samples.
The NSPARC detector uses an ultra-low noise array to collect signal at each point. This increases the signal-to-noise ratio of the image and allows for imaging with lower excitation power.
This microscope is well-suited for applications requiring rapid and multi-dimensional imaging and for applications that require high sensitivity.