Disclaimer
This resource is provided as is. That is without warranty and support.Contact the authors if you have material to contribute to this database.

Clicking on legend item will remove the spectrum from display.

Purpose and Origin
This project might be useful in configuring your microscope with appropriate optical filters or it might help you identify useful excitation and observation wavelengths for fluorescent materials.

The spectral database is a collection of materials from the PhotoChemCad Library, DRBIO, Oregon Medical Laser Center, scanned data from published literature, our own measurements and contributions from friends and colleagues. Special thanks go to George McNamara at the University Miami Medical School for combining much of the initial data. Transmission data of filters was obtained from the manufacturer's website.

Data
Data is usually normalized to be displayed with a maximum of 1. Within the notes for most dyes you can find molar extinction data and the wavelength where extinction was measured.

Units of molar extinction are M^-1 cm^-1 and is usually decadic, as Absorbance A = -log₁₀ T, where T is transmission measured on a spectrophotometer. A = e c d where epsilon is molar extinction [M^-1cm^-1], c is molar concentration [moles/liter] and d is path length [cm]. Absorption coefficient is related to extinction coefficient with m_a= e c ln(10) and T = exp(m_a d)

2P cross sections are either calibrated in GM or they are normalized to 1. Scale for 2P data is on the right.

Absorbing filter transmission (colorglass) depends on the material thickness. Usually data is given for a specified thickness and often includes specular reflection with air at both sides of the glass. Data is from 0..1 whereas 1 represents 100% transmission.

Bandpass filter transmission is from 0..1 whereas 1 is 100% transmission.

Data from dichroic mirrors usually represents transmission. If transmission is low, reflection is high, however towards shorter wavelengths transmission can also be low because of absorption in the substrate and coating.

Dye
Find your dye by typing the first letters in the search box.
If you want to search a dye within a category (e.g. 2P cross sections) select that category instead of the "All" category.

Filter
Find your filter by browsing the list. This list contains BandPass, ShortPass, Notch, Colorglass, optical materials and lenses.
Some items have endings such as N.A. or 32/25 which is not part of the manufacturer's original name.

Dichroic
Find your dichroic or full mirror here.

Lightsource
Find your ligth source here. Spectra starting with Z have problems with wavelength carlibration.

View Notes
Additional comments and data for each spectrum. Here you can find extinction as well as source of the original data. Some items might also have lifetime information. Some information might be specific to our laboratory.

Save Notes, Save Spectra, Download All Displayed Spectra
Self explanatory.

Linear / Log
Select vertical display style. Log style facilitates evaluation of filter blocking capabilities.

SQL database
A SQL database dump is available for download. You will need to contact the site administrator for most recent version.