Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy using a single-pass picosecond supercontinuum-seeded optical parametric amplifier
Journal
Optics Express
Journal Volume
18
Journal Issue
6
Pages
6116-6122
Date Issued
2010
Author(s)
Abstract
We have demonstrated coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy with a single-pass picosecond supercontinuum-seeded optical parametric amplifier (SCOPA). The SCOPA was pumped by a frequency-doubled picosecond passively mode-locked Nd:YVO(4) laser, and was seeded by a supercontinuum light source. Compared with the conventional experimental setups of CARS microscopy, our exposition is substantially simpler because the pump and Stokes lasers are overlapped in the SCOPA automatically and thus steered into a microscope coherently. The feasibility of this novel light source to CARS imaging was illustrated by acquiring the fundamental and overtone CARS images of the aromatic C-H stretching mode of polystyrene beads and an image of the pharynx of a C. elegans of the aliphatic C-H stretching mode.
Type
journal article