Optical time-stretch confocal microscopy at 1 μm

• Published in: Optics letters Vol. 37; no. 16; p. 3330
• Main Authors: Wong, Terence T W, Lau, Andy K S, Wong, Kenneth K Y, Tsia, Kevin K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 15.08.2012
• Subjects: Data Compression - methods; Equipment Design; Equipment Failure Analysis; Fiber Optic Technology - instrumentation; Interferometry - instrumentation; Microscopy, Confocal - instrumentation; Refractometry - instrumentation
• ISSN: 1539-4794
• DOI: 10.1364/OL.37.003330

We demonstrate optical time-stretch confocal microscopy in the 1 μm spectral window for high-speed and high-resolution cellular imaging. In contrast to the prior demonstrations of time-stretch imaging, which all operated in the telecommunication band, the present work extends the utility of this imaging modality to a wavelength regime (~1 μm), which is well known to be the optimal diagnostic window in biophotonics. This imaging technique enables us to image the nasopharyngeal epithelial cells with cellular resolution (<2 μm), at a line scan rate of 10 MHz, and with a field of view as wide as ~0.44 mm × 0.1 mm. We also theoretically and experimentally characterized the system performance. As the low-loss dispersive fibers for the time-stretch process as well as other essential optical components for enhancing the imaging sensitivity are commonly available at 1 μm, time-stretch confocal microscopy in this wavelength range could usher in realizing high-speed cell imaging with an unprecedented throughput.