PicoQuant has introduced new 500nm and 510nm picosecond pulsed diode laser heads, where green laser emission is not generated by wavelength conversion techniques, but directly generated by a semiconductor laser diode. The availability of the new wavelengths opens the door for entirely new applications in bioanalytics, biochemistry, genetics, semiconductor characterisation and quality control.
The laser heads are ideal for exciting fluorescent proteins like EYFP, mCitrine or Venus and widely used fluorescent dyes such as Alexa 514, Atto 520 or Oregon Green. They also fill an urgent demand for alternatives to frequency doubled solid state lasers or argon-ion lasers in applications like fluorescence microscopy. With pulse durations as short as 130ps, the pulsed laser heads perfectly match the time resolution of mainstream detectors, yet at a price much lower than that of commonly used mode-locked lasers. The two laser heads are also available in a dual mode version, that allows picosecond pulsed as well as continuous-wave operation.