Phase-cycling coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering using shaped femtosecond laser pulses

We demonstrate a homodyne coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) technique based on femtosecond laser pulse shaping. This technique utilizes fast phase cycling to extract nonlinear Raman signatures with a self-generated reference signal acting as a local oscillator. The local oscillator is generated at the focus and is intrinsically stable relative to the Raman signal even in highly scattering samples. We can therefore retrieve phase information from the Raman signal and can suppress the ubiquitous non-resonant background.