Reflective multi-immersion microscope objectives inspired by the Schmidt telescope

Voigt, Fabian F; Reuss, Anna Maria; Naert, Thomas; Hildebrand, Sven; Schaettin, Martina; Hotz, Adriana L; Whitehead, Lachlan; Bahl, Armin; Neuhauss, Stephan C F; Roebroeck, Alard; Stoeckli, Esther T; Lienkamp, Soeren S; Aguzzi, Adriano; Helmchen, Fritjof

doi:10.1038/s41587-023-01717-8

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Voigt, F. F., Reuss, A. M., Naert, T., Hildebrand, S., Schaettin, M., Hotz, A. L., Whitehead, L., Bahl, A., Neuhauss, S. C. F., Roebroeck, A., Stoeckli, E. T., Lienkamp, S. S., Aguzzi, A., & Helmchen, F. (2024). Reflective multi-immersion microscope objectives inspired by the Schmidt telescope. Nature Biotechnology, 42(1), 65–71. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01717-8

Abstract

Imaging large, cleared samples requires microscope objectives that combine a large field of view (FOV) with a long working distance (WD) and a high numerical aperture (NA). Ideally, such objectives should be compatible with a wide range of immersion media, which is challenging to achieve with conventional lens-based objective designs. Here we introduce the multi-immersion 'Schmidt objective' consisting of a spherical mirror and an aspherical correction plate as a solution to this problem. We demonstrate that a multi-photon variant of