Planet Arduino

Laser scanning microscopes use a focused laser beam to scan tiny samples down to the sub-cellular level. As such, they are generally available as expensive lab implements. You might also consider that CDs drives – and even more so DVDs and Blu-ray players – must be able to focus laser beams down to incredibly small resolutions in order to read disc information off of tiny pits.

Microengineer Urs Gaudenz leveraged the capabilities of these readily available drives to create his own open source DVD Laser Scanner Microscope. His build employs a pair of pickup heads, one to emit the laser and scan in the x direction, and another to move the sample in the y direction.

The pickup head coils and laser current are controlled by an Arduino Micro, while Processing is used to visualize images for some really incredible closeups. More details along with code and schematics can be found on GitHub.

With a DVD pick-up, an Arduino Uno, a laser, and an LDR, Instructables user “Venkes” has managed to create a DIY Laser Scanning Microscope (LSM).

A laser microscope works by shining a beam of light on a subject in an X-Y plane. The intensity of the reflected light is then detected by a photoresistor (or LDR) and recorded. When the various points of light are combined, you get an image.

Obviously you need a very small laser beam. Since a DVD laser unit has to work with the extremely small bit markings on these disks and has coils to steer the lens built-in, this seems like a logical choice to use with a custom microscope. Though it took quite a bit of effort to make, it’s capable of 1300x magnification and attaining a resolution of 65,536 pixels (256 x 256) in an area of .05 x .05mm. Results start around 3:00 in the video below.

More details of this impressive build can be found on the project’s Instructables page.