title: Two-photon-excitation scanning microscopy of living neurons with a saturable Bragg reflector mode-locked diode-pumped Cr:LiSrAlFl laser.
abstract: A Cr:LiSrAlFl laser, pumped with a diffraction-limited laser diode and mode locked with a saturable Bragg reflector, produces 90-fs pulses at 860 nm with a cw power as high as 88 mW in two beams. It is shown that this recently developed, compact, solid-state laser can be used as an excitation source for two-photon laser scanning microscopy. Morphological and functional images of neocortical and cerebellar neurons were obtained with submicrometer three-dimensional resolution. Single dendritic spines could easily be resolved deep in scattering tissue.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Svoboda
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Denk
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Knox
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tsuda