Open Raman Microscope (ORM)
The Open Raman Microscope (ORM) is built on the Thorlabs Cerna modular microscope platform, enabling flexible and customizable optical configurations. This reference design demonstrates a high-throughput, confocal Raman microscope using 785 nm laser excitation. The system features a modular architecture with interchangeable filter cubes (similar to fluorescence microscopes) and supports both high-confocal 3D cellular imaging and rapid, high-throughput imaging.
Design
The epi detection microscope design is based on the coupling of laser into the microscope optical path of the objective. The backscattered Raman light is passed through a filter-cube and focused using a collimator onto an optical fiber acting as a confocal pinhole or a bundle to linear array of fibers (high-throughput). Scanning across a sample is performed by moving the stage in X, Y for a 2D scan, and along with Z for a 3D scan. These functions can be achieved by multiple possible components from various suppliers and the ORM construction and software control with ORM-IRIS has been designed to support this.
Software support
Control of the microscope has been realized in the open sourced software (ORM-IRIS available at https://github.com/The-Thomas-Lab-UCL/orm-iris) and adapts the universal .csv format as well as a space efficient SQLite3 database format compatible with Python, Fiji, Matlab and R. ORM-IRIS software supports the following hardware:
Spectrometers/CCD:
Stages/movement control:
Widefield cameras:
For control of the microscope the following PC configuration is recommended:
Windows 10
Intel i9 Processor
64 GB RAM (determines the maximum scan size)
Note: At present, the app is known to NOT work with MacOS
Notes on modularity and customization:
Design
The epi detection microscope design is based on the coupling of laser into the microscope optical path of the objective. The backscattered Raman light is passed through a filter-cube and focused using a collimator onto an optical fiber acting as a confocal pinhole or a bundle to linear array of fibers (high-throughput). Scanning across a sample is performed by moving the stage in X, Y for a 2D scan, and along with Z for a 3D scan. These functions can be achieved by multiple possible components from various suppliers and the ORM construction and software control with ORM-IRIS has been designed to support this.
Software support
Control of the microscope has been realized in the open sourced software (ORM-IRIS available at https://github.com/The-Thomas-Lab-UCL/orm-iris) and adapts the universal .csv format as well as a space efficient SQLite3 database format compatible with Python, Fiji, Matlab and R. ORM-IRIS software supports the following hardware:
Spectrometers/CCD:
- Ocean Optics spectrometers (QEPro Raman lines)
- Princeton Instruments (Teledyne) (PIXIS families)
- Andor - Oxford Instruments (Ibsen EAGLE Raman S, Wasatch's Andor based cameras, etc.)
- Wasatch spectrometers
Stages/movement control:
- Physik Instrumente
- Zaber Technologies
- Thorlabs (Kinesis-based XY and Z stages; e.g., PFM450, M30XY, Z825B, etc.)
- Thorlabs MCM301 compatible Z stages
Widefield cameras:
- Thorlabs Scientific cameras (monochrome and color)
- Webcams
For control of the microscope the following PC configuration is recommended:
Windows 10
Intel i9 Processor
64 GB RAM (determines the maximum scan size)
Note: At present, the app is known to NOT work with MacOS
Notes on modularity and customization:
- Any laser from the UV to NIR can be implemented given filters/lenses are compatible with the wavelength range.
- Ensure that the laser is beam expanded to fill the back aperture of the microscope objective
- The spectrometer configuration should match the laser excitation accordingly. For instance, for a 532 nm visible laser the Raman grade spectrometer can cover from 570 nm to 700 nm corresponding to 400cm-1 to 3600 cm-1