Fiber Lasers for Coherent Raman Microscopy

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0967949WiseCoherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy is a sensitive and label-free nonlinear imaging technique that is attracting much interest. The technique requires an excitation source that provides two temporally-synchronized and wavelength-tunable picosecond light pulses. Existing sources of such pulses are complicated, expensive, and require trained operators, and these features create a major barrier to prospective users of CARS microscopy. A group from Cornell University will develop fiber-based light sources that promise to be integrated, stable, compact, and user-friendly. These will facilitate the expansion of CARS and related microscopy techniques beyond specialized research laboratories. The Cornell group will collaborate in the development with a group from Harvard University that is a leader in CARS microscopy. The generation of high-energy and wavelength-tunable picosecond pulses from an all-fiber source is a major challenge. New understanding of ultrafast nonlinear pulse propagation, and new ways to control ultrashort light pulses, will have to be developed in order to demonstrate the proposed capabilities. This will be converted into designs of short-pulse oscillators, amplifiers, and frequency-conversion stages. The development of such instruments is central to the fiber optics and ultrafast optics communities.