Endoscopic STED Nanoscopy with Optical FIber Vortices

带有光纤涡流的内窥镜 STED 纳米镜

• 批准号: 1310493
• 负责人: Siddharth Ramachandran
• 金额: $ 35.92万
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-06-15 至 2017-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1310493&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Endoscopic; STED; Nanoscopy; Optical; FIber

The objective of this program is to (1) demonstrate a compact and potentially cost effective fiber device that will be a drop-in replacement for the complex optics that are susceptible to thermal and environmental drifts in today's nanoscale microscopes operating on the principle of stimulated emission and spatial depletion; and (2) design a next generation fiber capable of incorporating all optical components of the aforementioned bulk microscope to realize endoscopic implementations of nanoscale imaging systems.The intellectual merit of this program is the realization that optical fibers can be specially designed to support orbital angular momentum carrying vortex beams, which lead to unprecedented multicolor control of the optical beam shape that exits the fiber and impinges on a sample. This development, combined with microscopy principles enabling super-resolution with complex beams, would lead to the first compact, alignment-free all-fiber imaging system capable of 20-50 nm resolution. The broader impacts of this program are twofold: (1) Developing minimally-invasive technologies that can image, at the nanoscale, cellular, subcellular, molecular, and genetic processes in living organisms, which would significantly advance our understanding of human pathobiology; (2) Optical vortices form one of the most visually appealing beam patterns, resembling spirals whose physics is related to tornado-formation, and their manipulation with fibers enables developing curricula for a diverse array of students ranging from high-schools to graduate-schools, which would help attract more US talent to the disciplines of science, engineering and mathematics.

该计划的目标是（1）展示一种紧凑且具有潜在成本效益的光纤装置，它将成为当今基于受激发射和空间损耗原理运行的纳米级显微镜中易受热和环境漂移影响的复杂光学器件的直接替代品； (2)设计下一代光纤，能够整合上述体显微镜的所有光学组件，以实现纳米级成像系统的内窥镜实现。该计划的智力优点是实现光纤可以被专门设计来支持携带涡旋光束的轨道角动量，从而对离开光纤的光束形状进行前所未有的多色控制，并且 撞击样品。这一发展与能够实现复杂光束超分辨率的显微镜原理相结合，将催生出第一个能够实现 20-50 nm 分辨率的紧凑型、免对准全光纤成像系统。该计划具有双重影响：（1）开发微创技术，能够在纳米尺度上对活体生物体的细胞、亚细胞、分子和遗传过程进行成像，这将显着增进我们对人类病理学的理解； (2) 光学涡旋形成了最具视觉吸引力的光束图案之一，类似于螺旋，其物理原理与龙卷风的形成有关，并且用光纤操纵它们可以为从高中到研究生院的各种学生开发课程，这将有助于吸引更多的美国人才进入科学、工程和数学学科。