title: Single-pulse CARS based multimodal nonlinear optical microscope for bioimaging.
abstract: Noninvasive label-free imaging of biological systems raises demand not only for high-speed three-dimensional prescreening of morphology over a wide-field of view but also it seeks to extract the microscopic functional and molecular details within. Capitalizing on the unique advantages brought out by different nonlinear optical effects, a multimodal nonlinear optical microscope can be a powerful tool for bioimaging. Bringing together the intensity-dependent contrast mechanisms via second harmonic generation, third harmonic generation and four-wave mixing for structural-sensitive imaging, and single-beam/single-pulse coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering technique for chemical sensitive imaging in the finger-print region, we have developed a simple and nearly alignment-free multimodal nonlinear optical microscope that is based on a single wide-band Ti:Sapphire femtosecond pulse laser source. Successful imaging tests have been realized on two exemplary biological samples, a canine femur bone and collagen fibrils harvested from a rat tail. Since the ultra-broad band-width femtosecond laser is a suitable source for performing high-resolution optical coherence tomography, a wide-field optical coherence tomography arm can be easily incorporated into the presented multimodal microscope making it a versatile optical imaging tool for noninvasive label-free bioimaging.
authors.forename: Sunil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Tschackad
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kamali
authors.forename: Jonathan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Levitte
authors.forename: Ori
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Katz
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hermann
authors.forename: Rene
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Werkmeister
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Považay
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Drexler
authors.forename: Angelika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Unterhuber
authors.forename: Yaron
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Silberberg