title: On illumination schemes for wide-field CARS microscopy.
abstract: New system for a wide-field CARS microscopy is demonstrated, including two schemes of non-phase-matching illumination. Several advantages including high Stokes pulse energy, pulse-to-pulse stability and inherent synchronization between pump and Stokes pulses were brought by use of methane-filled Raman converter. Spatial resolution of the system with axially symmetric illumination, 0.5 microm, was found to correspond to diffraction limit of the imaging objective. Selective sensitivity to lipid-rich myelin sheaths in the nerve tissue has been demonstrated and confirmed by comparison with histological samples stained with myelin-specific dye. Single-shot imaging capability of the system has been demonstrated with a speckling-free illumination on a monolayer of 3 microm polystyrene beads.
authors.affiliation: Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory, Stanford University, CA 94305-4085, USA. itoytman@stanford.edu
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Toytman
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Simanovskii
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Palanker
mesh_terms: D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008029:Lighting / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity