Endoscopic STED Nanoscopy with Optical FIber Vortices

这项计划的目标是(1)展示一种紧凑且可能具有成本效益的光纤设备，它将替代当今纳米显微镜中根据受激发射和空间耗尽原理运行的易受热和环境漂移影响的复杂光学装置；以及(2)设计一种能够整合前述体镜的所有光学组件的下一代光纤，以实现纳米级成像系统的内窥镜实现。该计划的智能优点是实现了光纤可以被特殊设计来支持轨道角动量携带涡旋光束，这导致了对出射光纤和撞击样品的光束形状的前所未有的多色控制。这一发展与显微镜原理相结合，实现了复杂光束的超分辨率，将导致第一个能够实现20-50 nm分辨率的紧凑、无对准的全光纤成像系统。该计划的更广泛的影响有两个方面：(1)开发能够在纳米尺度上对活体的细胞、亚细胞、分子和遗传过程进行成像的微创技术，这将显著推进我们对人类病理生物学的理解；(2)光学涡旋形成最具视觉吸引力的光束图案之一，类似于其物理与龙卷风形成有关的螺旋线，其与光纤的操纵使其能够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。

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.