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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Differential Imaging of Biological Structures with Doubly-resonant Coherent Anti-stokes Raman Scattering (CARS)
Published on: October 17, 2010
Broadly tunable dual-wavelength light source for coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy
Feruz Ganikhanov1, Silvia Carrasco, X Sunney Xie
1Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Abstract:
The signal and idler beams from a picosecond, synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator (OPO) provide the two colors necessary for coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy. The OPO provides a continuously tunable frequency difference between the two beams over a broad range of Raman shifts (100-3700 cm(-1)) by varying the temperature of a single nonlinear crystal. The near-infrared output (900-1300 nm) allows for deep penetration into thick samples and reduced nonlinear photodamage. Applications of this light source to in vivo cell and ex vivo tissue imaging are demonstrated.
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