From November 4 to 7, 2019, the lecturers and participants of the international course on “Principles and Applications of Time-resolved Fluorescence Spectroscopy” got a first look at PicoQuant’s FluoMic in action. This new add-on brings the accessibility and versatility of the time-resolved fluorescence spectrometer FluoTime 300 to remote samples without requiring any lengthy alignment or coupling procedures.

Lecturer Prof. Zygmunt “Karol” Gryczynski from the Texas Christian University (Texas, USA) was impressed with the add-on: “The FluoMic provides a reliable, fast and very simple way to perform spectroscopy on remote samples with the added bonus of spatial resolution at the point of interest.” FluoMic enables applying the broad palette of wizard-guided, steady-state, and time-resolved measurements of the FluoTime 300 to remote samples. Thus extending the spectrometer’s outstanding flexibility in both spectral (from UV to NIR) and time (from ps to ms) range to samples located outside the spectrometer.

The FluoMic’s pre-aligned fibers allow shining excitation light from both pulsed and steady-state sources of the spectrometer to a microscope such as the Olympus BX43 with a special microscope coupler unit. Emission is collected from a small sample area (down to 2 µm spatial resolution) and guided via a fiber to the detection arm of the FluoTime 300.

The FluoTime 300 is a high-end photoluminescence spectrometer with a modular design and fully automated hardware. It is capable of performing a huge variety of steady-state and time-resolved measurements, with outstanding flexibility in both the spectral as well as time range. With the FluoMic add-on, the spectrometer’s capabilities can be easily extended with spatial resolution.