Etalon filters for Brillouin microscopy of highly scattering tissues

Brillouin imaging of turbid biological tissues requires an effective rejection of the background noise due to elastic scattering of probe laser light. We have developed a narrowband spectral notch filter based on a pair of a free-space Fabry-Perot etalon and a mirror. The etalon filter in a 4-pass configuration is able to suppress elastically-scattered laser light with a high extinction ratio of > 40 dB and transmit inelastically-scattered light in a frequency shift range of 2-14 GHz with only 2 dB insertion loss. We also describe a simple etalon that enables us to use semiconductor diode laser sources for Brillouin microscopy by removing spontaneous emission noise. Using a clinically-viable Brillouin microscope employing these filters, we demonstrate the first Brillouin confocal imaging of the sclera and conjunctiva of the porcine eye.