Product News

July 4, 2024

FluoTime 300 spectrometer: Enhanced safety and precision

The high-performance instrument is now equipped with Class 1 laser safety and further new features

Our FluoTime 300 fluorescence lifetime spectrometer now features advanced enhancements, designed to elevate precision and safety in time-resolved spectroscopy. These improvements include a Class 1 laser option, new laser excitation capabilities, and the integration of the latest TCSPC electronics.

May 8, 2024

New PicoHarp 330: 4 channels. 4 more flexibility.

Unique flexibility broadens the scope of potential experiments

The PicoHarp 330 TCSPC and time tagging unit is now equipped with up to four detection channels and a dedicated sync channel with advanced channel configuration. The sync channel can be used as an additional detection channel if no synchronization signal is needed.

This enhancement not only broadens the scope of potential experiments but also significantly optimizes the efficiency of data collection in complex setups.

Key features include:

• Enhanced Channel Configuration: The 4+1 channels allow researchers to conduct more complex and diverse experiments. This is especially beneficial in quantum optics experiments like Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), Quantum Entanglement and Bell Test Experiments.
• Unmatched Low Jitter: Offering down to 2 ps RMS jitter, essential for accurate timing in QKD and photon correlation techniques.
• Independet yet Synchronized Channels: Each channel operates independently but can synchronize with the others through a common sync channel, providing flexibility in experimental setups. If synchronization is not required, the sync input can serve as an additional detection channel, ideal for coincidence correlation or counting experiments with up to five channels.

Explore how the new PicoHarp 330 can transform your research with its cutting-edge technology designed to meet the demanding requirements of modern scientific exploration.

Read more on the product page >

April 18, 2024

New development enables rapid 3D FLIM imaging in living organoids

Combining single objective light-sheet microscopy with pulsed excitation and time-resolved SPAD array detection

Using a self-developed single objective light-sheet microscopy set-up, Valentin Dunsing-Eichenauer from Aix-Marseille Université & CNRS, Johan Hummert from PicoQuant, Ivan Michel Antolović from Pi Imaging Technology, and colleagues show lifetime-based multiplexing in 3D as well as time-lapse FLIM of mechanosensitive tension probes at record speed in living embryonic organoids. The set-up is based on pulsed excitation using a high power laser prototype and time-resolved detection on a newly available SPAD array detector.

Confocal FLIM is a popular tool for multiplexing and functional imaging of sensor fluorophores, but it is limited with regard to acquisition speed of large samples and live cell compatibility. Light-sheet microscopy, on the other hand, allows for fast and gentle imaging of large specimen. Combining both techniques opens new possibilities for fast volumetric FLIM.

Read the paper at bioRxiv >

April 4, 2024

Enhanced synchronization capabilities with White Rabbit interface

Available for our multichannel event timers MultiHarp 150 and MultiHarp 160

The White Rabbit interface offers precise synchronization and timestamping for two separate time taggers with multiple channels. This ensures accurate time correlation between multiple devices or even different experiments, without cumbersome postprocessing. Amongst other applications, this is particularly relevant for quantum cryptography experiments.

PicoQuant's new Python wrapper snAPI allows you to easily implement White Rabbit into your experiments, enabling the simultaneous measurement initiation of two devices with predefinable measurement times. This ensures precise and reliable data acquisition, further streamlining synchronization capabilities across various applications.

White Rabbit interfaces are available with our MultiHarp 150 and MultiHarp 160 multichannel event timers.

Picture: Example of a network topology. The green bubbles stand for a MultiHarp 150 or MultiHarp 160 device. The blue bubbles represent the White Rabbit switches. 

September 27, 2023

PicoQuant’s commitment to sustainable consumption: extending the lifespan of scientific systems

A 21-year-old MicroTime 200 microscope receives comprehensive upgrade

Extending product lifespan is considered to be most effective way towards sustainable consumption. With this in mind, we at PicoQuant design our systems so that they can be repaired and upgraded for a long time, enabling cutting-edge research for many years.

Here is one example: The second MicroTime 200 fluorescence microscope ever sold, which was installed in 2002, received a comprehensive upgrade, breathing new life into a two-decade-old system at the Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisbon, Portugal. It is wonderful to see that a system sold 21 years ago is still operational in the lab of Prof. Sílvia Brito Costa and Pedro Paulo and can be serviced by us.