Leica SP5 microscope combines possilibty to perform Stimulated emission depletion microscopy (STED) and fluorescent confocal microscopy. Also Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) imaging can be performed on the Leica SP5 microscope.

Special features:
Flexible excitation (470-700 nm), filter-free spectral detection, simultaneous 5-colour detection, Super-resolution STED at 592 nm (green dyes), resonant scanners, gated detection.

The system is a standard inverted laser scanning confocal microscope. 

Excitation: The system is equipped with a white light laser (WLL) for a flexible choice of up to eight simultaneous excitation wavelengths (470-700 nm). The system further has a choice for argon laser excitation at 458 nm, 476 nm, 488 nm, 496 nm, and 514 nm. 

Detection: Emission wavelength collection is flexible because of the filter-free spectral detection system. The system is equipped with three point detectors; three PMT detectors and two hybrid (HyD) detectors. The HyD detectors have gated detection. 

Objectives: 10X/0.3 dry, 40X/1.3 oil, 63X/1.2 water, 100X/1.4 oil.

Further features: The system features eg. multiple ROI selection, scan speeds up to 7 frames/s (512x512 pixels), resonant scanner (8 kHz) with scan speeds of up to 28 frames/s (512 x 512 pixels), xyz, xzy, xyzt, xzyt, and lambda scan modes (both excitation and emission).

STED: The STED (STimulated Emission Depletion) systems is used with the above confocal system. Depletion: The system is equipped with a 592 nm continuous wave (CW) STED laser allowing for super-resolution microscopy. Sub-diffraction limited spatial (xy) resolution of down to ~50 nm standard green emitting STED dyes (eg. alexa488, Atto-488, abberior star 488, chromeo488). Objective: 100X/1.4.

Software for data analysis can be found here Leica LAS X