title: Contributed Review: A new synchronized source solution for coherent Raman scattering microscopy.
abstract: Based on vibrational spectroscopy, coherent Raman Scattering (CRS) microscopy allows label-free imaging of biological and chemical samples with endogenous image contrast. Two-color, synchronized picosecond pulses are typically used for high spectral resolution imaging, which in turn constitutes a dramatic laser source challenge for CRS microscopy. Recently, synchronized time-lens source, inspired from ultrafast optical signal processing, has emerged as a promising laser source solution and has found application in various modalities of CRS microscopy. Time-lens is based on space-time analogy, which uses a "lens" in the time domain to compress long optical pulses or even continuous waves to ultrashort pulses, mimicking a lens in the space domain. Phase and intensity modulators driven with electrical signals are used in the time-lens source for picosecond pulse generation. As a result, the time-lens source is highly versatile and naturally compatible with modulation capabilities. More importantly, if the electrical signals used to drive the time-lens source are derived from other laser sources, such as mode-locked lasers, then synchronization between them can be realized, underlying the physics of a synchronized time-lens source. In this paper, we review recent progress on the basic principle, design of the synchronized time-lens source, and its applications to CRS microscopy of both biological and chemical samples.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
authors.forename: Yuxin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
authors.forename: Runfu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
authors.forename: Jiaqi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Physics and Energy, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Qiu
mesh_terms: D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*