Fiber-based multimodal biophotonic imaging and spectroscopy system

A multimodal imaging system for simultaneously acquiring images of tissue structure and function with a single optical fiber, comprising:

• a fiber-coupled fluorescence imaging system operating with ultra-violet (UV) excitation light;
• a fiber-coupled optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging system;
• a fiber optic interface including a single optical fiber, which facilitates light delivery to a sample-of-interest and collection of returned optical signals, for both the fluorescence imaging system and the OCT imaging system, wherein:
• the single optical fiber comprises:
• a central core;
• and
• a multimode inner cladding;
• both UV excitation light for the fluorescence imaging system and infrared light for the OCT imaging system are transmitted through the central core to enable fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIm);
• and
• returned light for the fluorescence imaging system is transmitted;
• a wavelength selection module that includes:
• N dichroic beam splitters, wherein N>1;
• N+1 band-pass filters that divide the returned light into N+1 distinct spectral bands;
• a multichannel photomultiplier detector;
• and
• a multiplexer that temporally multiplexes the N+1 distinct spectral bands onto the multichannel photomultiplier detector;
• a pre-amplifier that amplifies output of the multichannel photomultiplier;
• and
• a data acquisition board that digitizes output of the pre-amplifier;
• wherein lifetimes of the N+1 distinct spectral bands of the returned light for the FLIm imaging are extracted from raw decays.