Umplanfl 100x 0

All optical measurements were performed on an Olympus® BX51 optical microscope. Images were acquired with a RGB Allied Vision Technologies® Prosilica GT camera mounted on the microscope’s imaging port. A high NA oil immersion lens (Olympus UPlanFL 100x / 1.30 oil) and a regular air objective (UMPlanFl 100x / 0.95) in conjunction with a Bertrand lens were used to image the samples’ angular emission profiles. The excitation source was a Sony® SLD3236VF laser diode, used with a Thorlabs® ITC4005 laser controller. The beam created by the laser diode was collimated through a 30mm focal length lens and its position and angle was controlled with two adjustable 45° mirrors before coupling it into the optical microscope. A customized microscope filter cube consisting of a short-pass filter ( < 450nm, Thorlabs® FESH0450), a long-pass dichroic mirror ( > 425nm, Thorlabs® DMLP425R) and a long-pass filter ( > 570nm, Thorlabs® FGL570) was also used. The standard excitation power used to excite the QDs was < 5mW to avoid heating and intensity variation of the laser diode. In addition, some tests were run with an excitation power up to 20mW without witnessing any photo-bleaching of the QDs. A 60x water immersion lens (Olympus (LUMPlanFl N 60x / 1.00 w) was used for the imaging of marine micro-organisms and bacteria.