Specimen (Sample) Stages for Nikon Labophot, Optiphot, Diaphot, Eclipse and Toolmaker's Microscopes

Nikon specimen stages Nikon specimen stages

One component that can be taken for granted, but is actually quite important, is the stage upon which your specimen rests. Even if it is a simple flat plate, smooth XY motion with good resolution is very, very useful for high-magnification work. Hand positioning can be done with low-magnification objectives, if desired.

There is a wide variety of stages for various Nikon instruments, ranging from simple, small range of travel manually actuated XY systems, to large motorized XY stages intended for wafer inspection applications up to 300 mm, to rotary (an perhaps XY as well) stages, typically used for polarization or DIC studies.

The Labophot series has the first variety, with attachment via a circular dovetail. The substage mount has a funny shape to accomodate a phase contrast condenser.

Labophot substage mount Labophot XY stage Labophot XY stage

The Eclipse E200 is generally similar, but is not as easily removed. This particular one is broken, but it gives you an idea what they look like.

Eclipse E200 XY stage Eclipse E200 XY stage

Episcopic systems don't neccessarily need to have a bottom light at all, so some stages do not have a hole, as is the case for this Optiphot XY stage. In this case, stage fingers to hold down a slide could be installed, but are not. The entire table moves, in contrast to the Labophot and E200 above, which the table moves in-out, but only the slide moves left-right. It has a range of travel of 70 x 101 mm.

Optiphot epi XY stage Optiphot epi XY stage

Polarization and DIC can benefit greatly by rotation of the sample about the center of the field. This stage has a removable XY stage on top of the rotation stage. The XY position can be read with the vernier scales to 0.1 mm and the rotation can be read by the vernier scale on the edge to 6 arcmin (0.1°). An important point about this arrangement is that the XY stage is on top of the rotation stage, so moving the sample under the objective does not alter the rotation point in the field, which can be centered with the two screws.

Optiphot / Labophot rotary/XY stage Optiphot / Labophot rotary/XY stage Optiphot / Labophot rotary/XY stage

Here it is mounted on an Optiphot.

Optiphot rotary/XY stage

Another rotary/XY stage is for the Toolmaker's Microscope. Oddly, the XY stage is below the rotation, so it doesn't maintain a center point. It however has really nice micrometers for XY and the vernier around the edge reads out to 1 arcmin (0.0167°). It also has T-slots for additional accessories (the ones shown are actually for a slightly different model). Despite appearances, it isn't very useful for transmitted polarization work, since the central clear part is plastic (which is birefringent), rather than glass.

Toolmaker's Microscope XY/rotary stage Toolmaker's Microscope XY/rotary stage Toolmaker's Microscope XY/rotary stage Toolmaker's Microscope XY/rotary stage accessory rotation stage Toolmaker's Microscope XY/rotary stage accessory rotation stage

The Diaphot TMD is slightly different in the fact that the sample stage isn't responsible for focusing the specimen - the objective turret moves up and down. This doesn't mean that it is totally fixed in height, as an adjustment set screw allows it to be adjusted for various objective parfocal distances and epi-illumination. It slides on a linear dovetail, and is easily removable.

Diaphot TMD stage installed fully down Diaphot TMD stage installed fully up

It is also unique in that it has an extension for the actuators such that the microscopist can work more comfortably, and the extension can even tilt around for maximum comfort. The "U" at the bottom of the dovetail is to allow the episcopic illuminator to poke through to the region below the objective turret.

Diaphot TMD stage dovetail Diaphot TMD stage

Another nice feature is that it has a very large hole, allowing a large range of viewing with Diascopic illumination. Various plates can be installed, allowing petri dishes, microscope slides and other specimens to work well with a simple swap of center plates.

Diaphot TMD stage with petri dish hole Diaphot TMD stage with various center hole plates

I'm unsure if this unit actually came from Nikon, or if it was installed in the aftermarket, but it has a motorized XY stage as well as a motorized focus stage. The top of the stage has four spots for slides. I suspect it was intended to be used inside the incubator (which is a standard Nikon part for the Diaphot), allowing automated repeated inspection of various points on up to four slides over time, as the subject was cultured. Neat!

Diaphot TMD motorized stage with four slide slots Diaphot TMD motorized focus stage

And finally, while I have yet to install it, I have a Narsige micromanipulator for the Diaphot. It is a simple one axis (Z) stage to allow a tiny needle to be placed between the condenser and a well slide, or other open sample, to move things around. You can pick up diatoms for exmaple to create a nice pattern, such as the master, Klaus Kemp, does. This is also how they move around human eggs for fertilization, for example. In fact, the Diaphot TMD was used to create the first test tube baby.

inverted microscope Narishige micromanipulator inverted microscope Narishige micromanipulator

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