Label-free chemical contrast is highly desirable in biomedical imaging. Spontaneous Raman microscopy provides specific vibrational signatures of chemical bonds, but is often hindered by low sensitivity. Here we report a three-dimensional multiphoton vibrational imaging technique based on stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). The sensitivity of SRS imaging is significantly greater than that of spontaneous Raman microscopy, which is achieved by implementing high-frequency (megahertz) phase-sensitive detection. SRS microscopy has a major advantage over previous coherent Raman techniques in that it offers background-free and readily interpretable chemical contrast. We show a variety of biomedical applications, such as differentiating distributions of omega-3 fatty acids and saturated lipids in living cells, imaging of brain and skin tissues based on intrinsic lipid contrast, and monitoring drug delivery through the epidermis.

Optical imaging in vivo with molecular specificity is important in biomedicine because of its high spatial resolution and sensitivity compared to MRI. Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy allows highly sensitive optical imaging based on vibrational spectroscopy without adding toxic or perturbative labels. However, SRS tissue imaging in living animals and humans has not been feasible because of weak signals from thick tissues and motion blur due to limited acquisition speed. Here we make in vivo SRS imaging possible by significantly enhancing the collection of the backscattered signal and by increasing the imaging speed by three orders of magnitude, to video rate. This allows label-free in vivo imaging of water, lipid and protein in skin and mapping of penetration pathways of topically-applied drugs in mice and humans.

We demonstrate a new approach to coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy that significantly increases the detection sensitivity. CARS signals are generated by collinearly overlapped, tightly focused, and raster scanned pump and Stokes laser beams, whose difference frequency is rapidly modulated. The resulting amplitude modulation of the CARS signal is detected through a lock-in amplifier. This scheme efficiently suppresses the nonresonant background and allows for the detection of far fewer vibrational oscillators than possible through existing CARS microscopy methods.