Intracavity Wavelength Modulation of an Optical Parametric Oscillator for Coherent Raman Microscopy
July 2009
in “
Optics express
”
TLDR Researchers created a new light source that improves chemical imaging by removing background noise.
Researchers developed a novel intracavity frequency modulation scheme for a tunable, picosecond optical parametric oscillator (OPO), achieving a modulation depth of over 10 nm at a rate of 38 MHz. This light source was applied to frequency modulation coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (FM-CARS) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) techniques, enabling real-time subtraction of interfering background signals in coherent Raman imaging, which resulted in images with purely chemical contrast.