Multimodal nonlinear optical polarizing microscopy of long-range molecular order in liquid crystals.
We demonstrate orientation-sensitive multimodal nonlinear optical polarizing microscopy capable of probing orientational, polar, and biaxial features of mesomorphic ordering in soft matter. This technique achieves simultaneous imaging in broadband coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering, multiphoton excitation fluorescence, and multiharmonic generation polarizing microscopy modes and is based on the use of a single femtosecond laser and a photonic crystal fiber as sources of the probing light. We show the viability of this technique for mapping of three-dimensional patterns of molecular orientations and show that images obtained in different microscopy modes are consistent with each other.
Department of Physics, Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, and Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute,University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
Taewoo
T
Lee
Rahul P
RP
Trivedi
Ivan I
II
Smalyukh