Prizmatix Cannulae are specially designed for working with high NA fibers and LED light sources.
Unlike lasers, Prizmatix Ultra High power LEDs have a high brightness large emitting area and wide angle radiance.
We use this characteristic to couple the LED's light efficiency into a high numerical aperture (NA ≥0.5)
primary large core fiber, e.g. 1000µm - 1500µm core. Due to the large core of the primary fiber, coupling of the secondary fiber
(NA≥0.5) with smaller core, e.g. 500µm, does not require precise axial alignment. Having the fibers close enough to each other,
just keeping the small core in front of the larger core still keeps efficient light transmission..
With Prizmatix Rotary Joint for
in-vivo experiments, the primary fiber is connected to the stationary top port of fiberoptic rotary joint and the secondary
fiber is connected to the rotating output port at the bottom of the rotary joint. Prizmatix Rotary Joint consists of a special low-friction ball-bearing
enabling the two fibers to rotate freely upon each other.
The brightness, usually measured in mW/mm², is basically conserved along the fiberoptic chain from
the LED light source towards the rotary joint and the implanted cannula, provided the Numerical Aperture (NA) is preserved
and despite the fact that core diameter of the fiber optic components in the system gets smaller.
The large core to small core(s) coupling method allows the secondary fiber to have more than one branch,
still using a single LED light source and without compromising the brightness. This is very useful for comprehensive research,
such as bi-lateral optogenetical manipulation of two brain hemispheres or at several locations simultaneously.
Prizmatix Rotary Joint is suitable for systems based on LEDs and high NA fibers as Prizmatix offers
in the Optogenetics Toolbox
The high NA-Cannulae are the last component in this fiberoptic chain,
exploiting the most of Prizmatix optogenetics LEDs.
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