Scheme for efficient fiber-based CARS probe

Abstract

Abstract. We demonstrate a fiber-based probe for maximum collection of the Coherent anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS) signal in biological tissues. We discuss the design challenges including capturing the back-scattered forward generated CARS signal in the sample and the effects of fiber nonlinearities on the propagating pulses. Three different biological tissues were imaged in vitro in order to assess the performance of our fiberdelivered probe for CARS imaging, a tool which we consider an important advance towards label-free, in vivo probing of superficial tissues.