Flow cytometers using optical waveguides in place of lenses for specimen illumination and light collection.

Optical waveguides represent alternatives to lenses for delivery of light to, and collection of light from, small regions of space such as the observation point(s) of a flow cytometer. The flow chamber and directly associated illumination and collection optics of a flow cytometer can be built using fiber optic waveguides in fixed positions or as an integrated optical assembly incorporating deposited or implanted waveguides, providing illumination and collection geometries and efficiencies comparable to conventional designs, with the advantage that the optical waveguide design, once assembled, never again requires alignment of the optics. A prototype apparatus in which fiber optics were used to illuminate and collect light from a point inside a thin-walled, round quartz capillary was observed to measure fluorescence of polystyrene spheres with precision close to that obtained from a conventional flow cytometer using the same laser source. The design of the fiber optic system is readily adaptable to construction of multiple illumination beam instruments; other optical waveguide flow cytometer designs that dispense with the capillary share this advantage and can also provide orifices for electronic volume sensing and for jetting prior to droplet sorting.