title: Single-beam homodyne SPIDER for multiphoton microscopy.
abstract: We report a new version of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction (SPIDER) requiring only a single phase-shaped laser beam. A narrowband probe pulse is selected out of a broadband ultrafast laser pulse by a phase pulse-shaping technique and mixed with the original broadband pulse to generate a second-harmonic generation (SHG) signal. Using another SHG signal solely generated by the broadband pulse as a local oscillator, the spectral phase of the broadband laser pulse can be analytically retrieved by a combination of double-quadrature spectral interferometry and homodyne optical technique for SPIDER (HOT SPIDER). An arbitrary spectral phase at the sample position of a microscope can be compensated with a precision of 0.05 rad over the FWHM of the laser spectrum. It is readily applicable to a nonlinear microscopy technique with a phase-controlled broadband laser pulse.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A5300, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Jiha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.forename: Bi-Chang
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Sang-Hyun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lim
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D007368:Interferometry / Q000379:methods*; D007834:Lasers; D036641:Microscopy, Fluorescence, Multiphoton / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity