Fiber four-wave mixing source for coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy

Opt Lett. 2012 May 15;37(10):1652-4. doi: 10.1364/OL.37.001652.

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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Brain / cytology
  • Epidermal Cells
  • Fibroblasts / cytology
  • Mice
  • Microscopy / instrumentation*
  • Optical Fibers*
  • Rats
  • Sebaceous Glands / cytology
  • Spectrum Analysis, Raman / instrumentation*