Femtosecond pulsed microscopy
AssigneeFlash Pathology B.V.
InventorFrank Van Mourik
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods are disclosed for femtosecond-pulsed microscopy, preferably non-linear microscopy. The microscopy system comprises a laser source for providing a pulse train comprising a series of femtosecond pulses and a pulse picker for selecting one or more bursts of pulses from the pulse train. Each of the one or more bursts comprises a plurality of consecutive pulses. The one or more bursts may comprise less than 25%, e.g., less than 15%, of the pulses of the pulse train. The microscopy system further comprises optics for illuminating a sample with the one or more bursts of pulses, and a detector for detecting signals caused by interaction of the one or more bursts of pulses with the sample. The detector may be configured to generate a single signal for each of the one or more bursts.
Claims20
A method for femtosecond-pulsed microscopy, the method comprising:
- repetitively selecting a burst of pulses from a pulse train comprising femtosecond laser pulses to obtain a plurality of bursts of pulses, each burst of pulses of the plurality of bursts of pulses comprising a plurality of consecutive pulses, the plurality of bursts of pulses comprising less than 25% of the pulses of the pulse train, an interval between two subsequent bursts of pulses from the plurality of bursts of pulses being at least thrice as long as a duration of a burst;
- repetitively illuminating a sample with the plurality of bursts of pulses;
- moving a focal spot to different positions on the sample, the sample comprising sample pixels, each sample pixel being illuminated by exactly one burst of pulses from the plurality of bursts of pulses;
- and,
- repetitively detecting interaction of the plurality of bursts of pulses with the sample to obtain a plurality of signals, each signal in the plurality of signals corresponding to the exactly one burst of pulses.
A microscopy system comprising:
- a laser source for providing a pulse train comprising a series of femtosecond pulses;
- a pulse picker for repetitively selecting a burst of pulses from the pulse train to obtain a plurality of bursts of pulses, each of the bursts of pulses of the plurality of bursts of pulses comprising a plurality of consecutive pulses, the plurality of bursts of pulses comprising less than 25% of the pulses of the pulse train, an interval between consecutive bursts of pulses of the plurality of bursts of pulses being at least thrice as long as a duration of a burst;
- optics for illuminating a sample with the plurality of bursts of pulses;
- a scanner for moving a focal spot to different positions on the sample, the different positions defining sample pixels on the sample, each sample pixel being illuminated by exactly one burst of pulses;
- and,
- one or more detectors for detecting one or more respective signals caused by interaction of the plurality of bursts of pulses with the sample, each of the one or more detectors being configured to generate a single signal for each of the bursts of pulses.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions which, when executed by a processor cause the processor to carry out a method comprising:
- repetitively selecting a burst of pulses from a pulse train comprising femtosecond laser pulses to obtain a plurality of bursts of pulses, each bursts of pulses of the plurality of bursts of pulses comprising a plurality of consecutive pulses, the plurality of bursts of pulses comprising less than 25% of the pulses of the pulse train, an interval between two subsequent bursts of pulses from the plurality of bursts of pulses being at least thrice as long as a duration of a burst;
- repetitively illuminating a sample with the selected plurality of bursts of pulses;
- moving a focal spot to different positions on the sample, the sample comprising sample pixels, each sample pixel being illuminated by exactly one burst of pulses from the plurality of bursts of pulses;
- and,
- repetitively detecting interaction of the plurality of bursts of pulses with the sample to obtain a plurality of signals, each signal in the plurality of signals corresponding to the exactly one burst of pulses.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.