Single-shot wide-field biochemical imaging at 1 kHz frame rate

Area of Science:

• Chemical Imaging
• Biophysics
• Spectroscopy

Background:

• Vibrational microspectroscopy (Raman, infrared) maps chemical distributions without labels.
• Imaging fast dynamics in living organisms using current methods is challenging due to motion blur.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a wide-field infrared microspectroscopy technique for single-shot imaging of fast dynamic processes.
• To overcome limitations of current methods in capturing rapid biological events at the molecular level.

Main Methods:

• Proposed a wide-field infrared microspectroscopy system utilizing single-shot imaging with picosecond laser pulses.
• Employed an infrared-resonant third-order sum-frequency process for signal conversion (infrared to visible).
• Achieved high frame rates up to the laser repetition rate, minimizing motion blur.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated single-shot in vivo imaging of live *Caenorhabditis elegans* worms with ~400 nm spatial resolution.
• Captured 1,000 Hz single-shot videos of moving worms using a kHz laser system.
• Successfully imaged chemical distributions in dynamic biological samples without labeling.

Conclusions:

• The developed single-shot infrared microspectroscopy enables label-free imaging of fast chemical dynamics in vivo.
• This technique offers significant potential for studying rapid biological and chemical processes.
• Opens new avenues for research in chemistry and biology requiring high-speed chemical analysis.