Open AccessAlignment-free, all-spliced fiber laser source for CARS microscopy based on four-wave-mixing
Author(s) -
Martin Baumgartl,
Thomas Gottschall,
J. Abreu-Afonso,
A. Dı́ez,
Tobias Meyer,
Benjamin Dietzek,
Manfred Rothhardt,
Jürgen Popp,
Jens Limpert,
Andreas Tünnermann
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.20.021010
Subject(s) - optics , fiber laser , laser , materials science , microscope , raman scattering , microscopy , raman spectroscopy , picosecond , optoelectronics , physics
An environmentally-stable low-repetition rate fiber oscillator is developed to produce narrow-bandwidth pulses with several tens of picoseconds duration. Based on this oscillator an alignment-free all-fiber laser for multi-photon microscopy is realized using in-fiber frequency conversion based on four-wave-mixing. Both pump and Stokes pulses for coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy are readily available from one fiber end, intrinsically overlapped in space and time, which drastically simplifies the experimental handling for the user. The complete laser setup is mounted on a home-built laser scanning microscope with small footprint. High-quality multimodal microscope images of biological tissue are presented probing the CH-stretching resonance of lipids at an anti-Stokes Raman-shift of 2845 cm(-1) and second-harmonic generation of collagen. Due to its simplicity, compactness, maintenance-free operation, and ease-of-use the presented low-cost laser is an ideal source for bio-medical applications outside laser laboratories and in particular inside clinics.