X Line Objective Lenses Break Optical Barriers with Simultaneously Improved Image Flatness, Chromatic Aberration Correction and Numerical Aperture

Designed with new manufacturing technology that creates lenses with shapes that are difficult to fabricate using other methods, Olympus’ new X Line™ series objectives and the UPLAPO-HR objectives for super resolution and TIRF microscopy break optical barriers to deliver outstanding image quality.

It is difficult to improve one area of an objective lens, such as numerical aperture, without tradeoffs in another area, like chromatic aberration correction. However, X Line objectives overcome the common tradeoffs by simultaneously improving optical performance in three critical areas:

• Expanded flatness for uniform images from the center to the edge with an observation area of 1.7 times greater than conventional objectives
• Exceptional color accuracy during brightfield and multicolor fluorescence imaging with chromatic aberration from violet to near-infrared (400–1000 nm)
• Excellent image quality, even with weak excitation light, with a higher numerical aperture (up to 1.45) for reduced fluorescence fading and phototoxicity during time-lapse experiments
  
  With these advancements, users can acquire bright, high-quality images throughout the entire field of view, helping improve quantitative data acquisition and the speed of creating large, stitched images. For pathologists who frequently work with stained samples, accurate color reproduction improves image reliability.

Using the same technology as the X Line series, the UPLAPO-HR super resolution and TIRF objectives are the first plan apochromat objectives in the world to achieve a numerical aperture of 1.5, enabling bright, high-resolution observations of even weak excitation light. During super resolution imaging, these objectives enable users to locate an object of interest using a wider field of view and then smoothly resolve down to a higher magnification.