Chip-scale ultrashort pulsed lasers for two-photon fluorescence imaging and sensing

申请者计划利用光子晶体技术在单个半导体晶片上以单片方式制造锁模超短脉冲激光器。从长远来看，由此产生的激光器可能会改变生命科学家、教育工作者和学生使用非线性光学显微镜的方式。对于研究人员来说，大规模或分布式双光子成像系统可以提供全新的能力，通过并行使用许多显微镜来检查生物世界或筛选大型标本库。激光也将在他们自己的神经科学研究中得到直接应用，用于观察清醒行为的老鼠的神经元动态。结合微加工扫描镜，芯片级激光器将使我们能够制造出微型双光子显微镜，这样每只老鼠的头骨上都有自己的显微镜。这项研究将由斯坦福大学的两个实验室合作进行，他们的专业知识互补。James Harris是使用分子束外延（MBE）技术生长半导体光学器件的先驱。Mark Schnitzer在双光子显微镜的设计和构造及其在脑成像中的应用方面经验丰富。作为一个原理验证演示，这两个小组将设计、制造、测试和改进10个基于芯片级激光器的微型双光子显微镜。

0967257SchnitzerThe applicants plan to create mode-locked, ultrashort-pulsed lasers that are made in a monolithic manner on a single semiconductor wafer using photonic crystal technology. In the long run, the resulting lasers could reshape how life scientists, educators and students use nonlinear optical microscopy. For researchers, large-scale or distributed two-photon imaging systems could provide wholly new capabilities for inspecting the biological world or screening large libraries of specimens by the combined use of many microscopes in parallel. The lasers will also find immediate usage in their own neuroscience research, for visualizing neuronal dynamics in awake behaving mice. In combination with microfabricated scanning mirrors, the chip-scale lasers will allow us to make tiny two-photon microscopes such that each mouse carries its own microscope on its cranium The research will be a collaboration between two Stanford labs of complementary expertise. James Harris is a pioneer in the use of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) techniques for growing semiconductor optical devices. Mark Schnitzer is deeply experienced in the design and construction of two-photon microscopes and their usages for brain imaging. As a proof-of-principle demonstration, the two groups will design, build, test, and refine 10 tiny two-photon microscopes based on chip-scale lasers.