title: Fiber four-wave mixing source for coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy.
abstract: We present a fiber-format picosecond light source for coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy. Pulses from a Yb-doped fiber amplifier are frequency converted by four-wave mixing (FWM) in normal-dispersion photonic crystal fiber to produce a synchronized two-color picosecond pulse train. We show that seeding the FWM process overcomes the deleterious effects of group-velocity mismatch and allows efficient conversion into narrow frequency bands. The source generates more than 160 mW of nearly transform-limited pulses tunable from 775 to 815 nm. High-quality coherent Raman images of animal tissues and cells acquired with this source are presented.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA. sl694@cornell.edu
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lefrancois
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Gary R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Holtom
authors.forename: Lingjie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Wadsworth
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Herda
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zach
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sunney Xie
authors.forename: Frank W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Wise
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology; D000078404:Epidermal Cells; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology; D051379:Mice; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D055100:Optical Fibers; D051381:Rats; D012627:Sebaceous Glands / Q000166:cytology; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000295:instrumentation*