Multimodal optical imaging with multiphoton microscopy and optical coherence tomography

Two types of combined multiphoton microscopy and optical coherence tomography (MPM/OCT) are compared for multimodal optical imaging. Single‐scale multiphoton microscopy and optical coherence microscopy (MPM/OCM) is shown to acquire multiple contrasts from MPM and OCT simultaneously. Multi‐scale MPM/OCT is shown to provide multiple field‐of‐views (FOVs), where OCT provides tissue level imaging and MPM provides cellular level imaging. In both types, the MPM includes two channels which are two‐photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) and second harmonic generation (SHG). Representative images using each system are demonstrated on biological specimens. A detailed comparison of the two types of MPM/OCT shows that each system has its own pros and cons. MPM/OCM is high‐resolution but with limited FOV, and OCM may or may not provide additional information than MPM depending on the samples. Multi‐scale MPM/OCT can change FOV but need both low and high NA objectives. For future development, the two types of MPM/OCT can be further integrated to achieve both functions on a single system. (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)