Agilent Technologies NovoCyte Quanteon Operator's Manual page 30

Introduction
particles in the sample. Optical lenses shape the laser beam into a spot with
appropriate shape and size. Optical lenses are also used to collect the light
emitted from the cells or particles when they pass through the laser beam. Optical
filters direct the light collected by the optical lenses to the appropriate detectors.
When the stained cells or other particles pass through the focused laser beam,
scattered light and fluorescence signals will be generated. Such light is collected
by the light collecting optics and converted by the photodetectors into electronic
signals.
Lasers
Agilent flow cytometer uses low-power solid-state lasers to provide reliable and
high-performance excitation sources for the instrument. Solid-state lasers have
compact size, excellent performance, good stability, long lifetime, and other
advantages. The lasers come with a thermoelectric cooling (TEC) system to
ensure its extraordinary beam quality. Agilent flow cytometer offers up to five
lasers to meet the needs for different applications. Customized model other than
the standard configuration is available. Please refer to Appendix A in this guide for
more details of your product. Please contact Agilent local sales representatives or
distributors for customized model request.
Beam Shaping Optics
Beam shaping optics shape the laser beam into an elliptical spot and focus the
spot at the center of the flow cell.
Light Collection Optics
The light collection optics efficiently collect the light emitted by the particles or
cells from the center of the flow cell, including forward scatter light, side scatter
light and fluorescence signals.
Optical Filters
Optical filters regulate the spectral distribution of light scatter and fluorescence
directed to the photodetectors. When photons encounter an optical filter, they are
transmitted, absorbed, or reflected. In general, optical filters can be divided into
longpass filters, shortpass filters, and bandpass filters.
In Agilent flow cytometer, longpass and shortpass filters (also called dichroic
mirrors) allow part of the light to be transmitted and part of the light is reflected.
Incident light typically enters the filter at an angle of 45°. The transmitted light
travels in the same direction as the incident light (λ2), whereas the reflected light is
reflected in a 90° angle relative to the incident light (λ1) (Figure 1).
30 NovoCyte Quanteon Flow Cytometer Operator's Guide