UV diode laser excitation in flow cytometry

1. An instrument comprising:

a. a flow source for delivering particles along a flow axis to an interrogation zone;

b. a multimode diode laser for producing a multimode beam along a beam axis which illuminates particles at the interrogation zone, wherein the multimode beam has a transverse beam profile with multiple spatially separated intensity peaks;

c. beam shaping optics in the beam axis for altering the multimode transverse beam profile with multiple spatially separated intensity peaks to a compressed beam profile with uniform spatial intensity characteristics;

d. a detector for detecting reflected or fluorescent light from the illuminated particles at the interrogation zone and for producing a signal representative of particle characteristics; and

e. a processor in communication with the detector for analyzing the signal and determining particle characteristics.

2. The instrument of claim 1 wherein the transverse beam profile comprises a beam height and a beam width.

3. The instrument of claim 2 wherein the beam shaping optics further comprise:

a. a first element for altering the beam width of the beam profile in the transverse flow axis; and

b. a second element for altering the beam height of the beam profile in the flow axis.

4. The instrument of claim 3 wherein the first element is located on the beam axis and comprises a cylindrical lens.

5. The instrument of claim 3 wherein the second element is located on the beam axis and comprises a cylindrical lens.

6. The instrument of claim 1 wherein the multimode diode laser produces a multimode beam having wavelengths between about 350 nm and about 400 nm.

7. The instrument of claim 6 wherein the multimode diode laser produces a multimode beam having wavelengths between about 370 nm and about 380 nm.

8. The instrument of claim 1 wherein the compressed beam profile with uniform spatial intensity characteristics provides enough uniform laser exposure to sperm at the interrogation zone for sex sorting.

9. The instrument of claim 1 wherein the beam shaping optics comprises a pair of crossed cylindrical lenses.

10. The instrument of claim 9 wherein each crossed cylindrical lens is oriented 90° relative to the other lens.

11. The instrument of claim 10 wherein the first cylindrical lens has a focal length between about 10 mm and about 150 mm.

12. The instrument of claim 10 wherein the second cylindrical lens has a focal length of between about 10 mm and about 150 mm.

13. The instrument of claim 1 wherein the beam is focused into a beam spot about 26 μm by about 160 μm.

14. The instrument of claim 1 wherein the beam is focused into a beam spot about 29 μm by about 100 μm.

15. The instrument of claim 1 wherein the multimode diode laser is oriented 90 degrees about the beam axis.

16. The instrument of claim 1 further comprising an orientating device for orienting particles within the flow path.

17. The instrument of claim 1 further comprising a sorting device for sorting the particles based upon the determined particle characteristics.

18. The instrument of claim 17 wherein the sorting devices comprises one selected from the group consisting of: deflection plates, a fluid switching element, and an ablation laser.

19. The instrument of claim 1 wherein the detector comprises a pair of orthogonal photo detectors.

20. The instrument of claim 1 wherein the multimode diode laser comprises a UV multimode diode laser operated at 200 mW.

21. The instrument of claim 1 wherein the beam shaping optics comprises micro-electro-mechanical elements to redirect all or portions of the beam to shape the beam profile.

22. The instrument of claim 1 further comprising a second multimode diode laser for producing a second beam.

23. The instrument of claim 22 further comprising beam combining optics for producing a combined beam along the beam axis from the first and the second multimode lasers, wherein the combined beam comprises improved power and improved uniform intensity characteristics.

24. A method of processing particles comprising the steps of:

a. flowing particles along a fluid flow path having an interrogation zone;

b. producing an multimode beam directed at the interrogation zone, wherein the multimode beam has a transverse beam profile with multiple spatially separated intensity peaks;

c. manipulating the multimode beam to create a compressed beam with uniform spatial intensity characteristics;

d. illuminating particles at the inspection zone with the manipulated beam;

e. detecting reflected or fluorescent light from particles as they pass the interrogation zone and producing a signal;

f. classifying particles based upon the produced signals.

25. The method of processing particles according to claim 24 further comprising the steps of:

a. selecting particles based on their classification;

b. collecting selected particles.

26. The method of processing particles according to claim 24 wherein the step of manipulating the illumination beam further comprises the steps of:

a. focusing the illumination beam; and

b. shaping the illumination beam.

27. The method of processing particles according to claim 24 wherein the step of manipulating the illumination beam further comprises the steps of:

a. compressing the beam height of the beam profile with a first element to a beam height between 10 and 30 micrometers.

28. The method of processing particles according to claim 24 wherein the step of manipulating the illumination beam further comprises the steps of:

a. compressing the beam width of the beam profile to a beam width between 100 micrometers and 200 micrometers.

29. The method of processing particles according to claim 24 further comprising the step of modifying the height to width ratio of the beam profile to between about 1 to 4 and about 1 to 5.

30. The method of processing particles according to claim 24 wherein the step of manipulating the illumination beam further comprises the steps of focusing the illumination beam and varying the aspect ratio of the beam height to the beam width until spatial variations in the beam intensity profile are reduced or eliminated.

31. The method of processing particles according to claim 30 wherein the step of spatial variations in the beam intensity profile are reduced enough to sort sperm.