273 research outputs found
Coherent Raman spectro-imaging with laser frequency combs
Optical spectroscopy and imaging of microscopic samples have opened up a wide
range of applications throughout the physical, chemical, and biological
sciences. High chemical specificity may be achieved by directly interrogating
the fundamental or low-lying vibrational energy levels of the compound
molecules. Amongst the available prevailing label-free techniques, coherent
Raman scattering has the distinguishing features of high spatial resolution
down to 200 nm and three-dimensional sectioning. However, combining fast
imaging speed and identification of multiple - and possibly unexpected-
compounds remains challenging: existing high spectral resolution schemes
require long measurement times to achieve broad spectral spans. Here we
overcome this difficulty and introduce a novel concept of coherent anti-Stokes
Raman scattering (CARS) spectro-imaging with two laser frequency combs. We
illustrate the power of our technique with high resolution (4 cm-1) Raman
spectra spanning more than 1200 cm-1 recorded within less than 15 microseconds.
Furthermore, hyperspectral images combining high spectral (10 cm-1) and spatial
(2 micrometers) resolutions are acquired at a rate of 50 pixels per second.
Real-time multiplex accessing of hyperspectral images may dramatically expand
the range of applications of nonlinear microscopy.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
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