title: Multifocus confocal Raman microspectroscopy for fast multimode vibrational imaging of living cells.
abstract: We have developed a multifocus confocal Raman microspectroscopic system for the fast multimode vibrational imaging of living cells. It consists of an inverted microscope equipped with a microlens array, a pinhole array, a fiber bundle, and a multichannel Raman spectrometer. Forty-eight Raman spectra from 48 foci under the microscope are simultaneously obtained by using multifocus excitation and image-compression techniques. The multifocus confocal configuration suppresses the background generated from the cover glass and the cell culturing medium so that high-contrast images are obtainable with a short accumulation time. The system enables us to obtain multimode (10 different vibrational modes) vibrational images of living cells in tens of seconds with only 1 mW laser power at one focal point. This image acquisition time is more than 10 times faster than that in conventional single-focus Raman microspectroscopy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, School of Science, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan, 113-0033.
authors.forename: Masanari
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Okuno
authors.forename: Hiro-o
authors.initials: HO
authors.lastname: Hamaguchi
mesh_terms: D002470:Cell Survival; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000166:cytology*; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000379:methods*; D014732:Vibration