Detection_alignment

If you follow the assembly steps described above, the detection arm will be aligned to the hole pattern of the base breadboard, which serves as a reference framework for detection arm, excitation arms, and sample stages. The opto-mechanical axis of the detection arm will be at 135 mm height from the base breadboard. Typically, no special alignment is necessary for the detection arm.

Some checkpoints are due:

• co-planarity of detection arm vs light-sheet plane is achieved by mechanical alignment of the excitation assembly and optical alignment of the light-sheets (the latter has the highest impact on alignment accuracy). See excitation arm alignment for details.
• sample stages must be mounted to the breadboard with standard accuracy that the M6 screws allow. If in doubt, use the steel try square to check orthogonality of the mechanical angles. Misalignment between the detection optical axis and Z-stage will result image stacks with a skew (linear drift in XY) along the Z-axis. However, since cleared samples have their own distortions due to clearing process, a small skew is usually not an issue.