What is hyperspectral fluorescence imaging? 

Fluorescence imaging is a valuable tool for studying plant material or other organic fluorescing specimans. For plants, it can easily excite and detect the photosynthetic pigments present within the plant. Middleton Spectral Vision has developed a hyperspectral fluorescence imaging system called the MacroPhor™. This instrument is optimized for macro-scale imaging of fluorescing samples such as plants or plant related material, yeast colonies, and other organic specimans. 

Image acquisition begins by illuminating the specimen under investigation with line illumination from a laser oriented along the specimen’s x axis. The fluorescence emission from this line illumination is collected in 180 degree geometry and is directed to a highly sensitive fluorescence spectral camera. Hence, a single collected fluorescence line sent to the spectral camera gives information about the spectral diversity at each spatial point on the collected line. Successive image lines are acquired by the spectral camera during acquisition  to build up a full image of the specimen. This is accomplished by translating the specimen in the y direction via an automated stage in a push broom manner. 

The hyperspectral fluorescence imaging system excites the sample using a single wavelength laser. Laser wavelength options include 405,488,532 or 640 nm. The spectral range of the acquired image is 400-800nm except for the 640 nm which would cover the 600-1000nm range. Some wavelengths may be blocked by a filter cube that prevents the laser signal from passing through to the camera.