Masao Izawa

The Design and Construction of an Incident Light Microspectrofluorimeter

This paper describes an instrument for quantitative microspectrofluorimetry. It is capable of quantitative fluorescence measurements with better accuracy by introducing a spot excitation system and microspectrofluorimetric attachment as well as a stabilized light source. As only a small portion of the specimen is illuminated with the exciting spot light, it is possible to perform the measurement of fluorescent distribution across the entire area of the specimen without the influence of photodecomposition and nonspecific fluorescence. An accurate measurement of fluorescent spectrum scanned over the wavelength range between 400 and 700 nm can be done in 3 sec. Its construction and examples of biological application are presented.