Ultra-slim plastic endomicroscope objective for non-linear microscopy

Abstract

Non-linear microscopy has the potential to provide clinically useful information on the structure of biological tissue in vivo via an endomicroscope. The ability to use plastic as the optical material in a multiphoton objective was evaluated based on several criteria including autofluorescence, injection molding induced birefringence, and pulse broadening due to group velocity dispersion. An all-plastic, refractive ultra-slim endoscope objective was built with design specifications of NA = 0.4, FOV = 250 μm, 1.27 mm outer diameter, and 0.8 mm clear aperture. Initial images of second-harmonic generation signal (illumination at 780 nm) in collagen fibers and two-photon excited fluorescence (illumination at 920 nm) of Convallaria rhizome are reported.

Design and characterization of a handheld multimodal imaging device for the assessment of oral epithelial lesions

“…As noted by other developers of in vivo high resolution imaging systems, a slightly curved field is not a major concern when imaging a thick tissue sample. 39 Even with this falloff, a 5.7-μm resolution was achieved at the field edge.…”

Accumulating advantages, reducing limitations: Multimodal nonlinear imaging in biomedical sciences – The synergy of multiple contrast mechanisms

“…Therefore, especially technological improvements are required for miniaturization, improvement of the ease of handling and automated data processing and extraction of relevant information. An important step toward this goal is the modification of standard clinical endoscopes [158] for multimodal nonlinear imaging suited for in vivo applications [159][160][161][162][163].…”

Development of a universal, tunable, miniature fluorescence microscope for use at the point of care

“…There are generally three optical polymers that can be single point diamond turned: poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polystyrene, and cyclo-olefin polymers (COP). To lower cost and simplify manufacturing, it was decided that the entire optical system (excluding the tunable lenses) would be made from PMMA due to its proven machinability on diamond turning lathes [12] and its low autofluorescence [13]. The design was optimized for eight y-field points due to the extensive use of aspheric components.…”