Intracavity Wavelength Modulation of an Optical Parametric Oscillator for Coherent Raman Microscopy

    July 2009 in “ Optics express ”
    Brian G. Saar, Gary R. Holtom, Christian W. Freudiger, Chrisita Ackermann, I. Winfield Hill, X. Sunney Xie
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    Studysummary This study introduces a new intracavity frequency modulation technique for tunable picosecond optical parametric oscillators, enhancing chemical contrast in coherent Raman imaging by allowing real-time subtraction of background signals. Our plain-language summary of this paper — not a Tressless recommendation.
    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.
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