Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Funds are requested to purchase a Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy system. CARS has recently emerged as a valuable photonic tool for non-invasive, chemical imaging of biological and material systems. This technique avoids the need for labeling and the intense, unidirectional CARS signal from the specimen enables fast data acquisition times and inherent 3-dimensional sectioning capability.A variety of sources have been employed to generate the pump and Stokes signals for CARS. The most powerful implementations to date employ either two synchronized picosecond sources or the current state-of-the-art synchronously pumped OPO systems. These methods are powerful, but technically complex and expensive. In order for CARS microscopy to become a widespread tool, a more economical light source must be explored. The use of a single broadband laser source to generate both pump and Stokes pulses has been an important step in this direction but has been limited, to-date, in imaging capabilities with longer collection times.The theme of the research program is to investigate low cost broadband multiplex CARS microscopy that is capable of high sensitivity detection as well as high spectral resolution.The equipment that is requested in this proposal is essential to the construction of a CARS microscope with high sensitivity and resolution. The proposed CARS microscope infrastructure will enable new research across a broad spectrum of multi-disciplinary fields that are critically reliant on real-time imaging capabilities at the sub-micron level.