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.
Lee
Taewoo
T
Department of Physics, Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, and Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute,University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
Trivedi
Rahul P
RP
Smalyukh
Ivan I
II