As bright as fluorescence may appear when you use an intense light source to view it in conditions of darkness, in most cases it actually tends to be a relatively weak effect that is easily masked by other light. If you try to find fluorescence when there is moderate ambient light (room light, sunlight, …), any fluorescing subject will respond to the excitation, but the response may be too weak to notice easily.

But there’s a trick – by making the excitation light source blink repetitively (a strobe effect), any fluorescence will blink at the same rate, while the illuminated background will not. This flickering increases the apparent contrast and thus increases detectability.

If you want to use the Xite as a light source for fluorescence photography, we have prepared recommendations for compatible off-the-shelf camera filters.

Light can be described as an electromagnetic wave traveling through space. For purposes of ellipsometry, it is adequate to discuss the waves’s electric field behavior in space and time, also known as polarization. The electric field of a wave is always orthogonal to the propagation direction. Therefore, a wave traveling along the z-direction can be described by its x- and y- components. When the light has completely random orientation and phase, it is considered unpolarized. For ellipsometry, however, we are interested in the kind of electric field that follows a specific path and traces out a distinct shape at any point. This is known as polarized light. When two orthogonal light waves are in-phase, the resulting light will be linearly polarized. The relative amplitudes determine the resulting orientation. If the orthogonal waves are 90° out-of-phase and equal in amplitude, the resultant light is circularly polarized. The most common polarization is “elliptical”, one that combines orthogonal waves of arbitrary amplitude and phase. This is where ellipsometry gets its name.

There are two common sources of confusion in regard to selecting the best NIGHTSEA wavelength option. Please read the points below to help in selecting the right system for your application.

View fluorescence in the lab or the field! The Xite™ Fluorescence Flashlight System includes single-wavelength fluorescence excitation flashlights available with any of the five wavelengths in the NIGHTSEA line, paired with matching barrier filter glasses for maximum viewing contrast. Genotyping your transgenic organisms, screening cell cultures, inspecting parts with fluorescent penetrants, finding fluorescing critters in the field, … the Xite line provides what you need.