Fiber-based combined optical coherence and multiphoton endomicroscopy

A fiber-based multimodal imaging system that combines multiphoton microscopy (MPM) with Fourier domain optical coherence microscopy (OCM) is reported. The system uses a fiber-based femtosecond laser, a fiber coupler, and a double-clad fiber (DCF) device. The fiber laser has a central wavelength of 1.04 microm and bandwidth of 29 nm. Longer excitation wavelength is used to increase penetration depth and increase the excitation efficiency for dyes, such as red fluorescent dyes. A single mode fiber coupler is used to replace the free-space beam splitter and one arm of the coupler is fused with a double-clad fiber device. The MPM and OCM share the same excitation light path in the core of a double-clad fiber, while the OCM and MPM signals were collected by the core and clad of the double-clad fiber, respectively. The performance of the introduced double-clad device is analyzed. The device can confine all the excitation light in the core and has a collection efficiency of 20% for the MPM signal. The efficiency can be further increased by fusing more multimode fibers with the DCF. Simultaneous optical coherence microscopic imaging, second harmonic generation imaging, and two-photon excitation fluorescence imaging are demonstrated in biological samples.