Miniaturized probe for femtosecond laser microsurgery and two-photon imaging

Abstract

Combined two-photon fluorescence microscopy and femtosecond laser microsurgery has many potential biomedical applications as a powerful "seek-and-treat" tool. Towards developing such a tool, we demonstrate a miniaturized probe which combines these techniques in a compact housing. The device is 10 x 15 x 40 mm(3) in size and uses an aircore photonic crystal fiber to deliver femtosecond laser pulses at 80 MHz repetition rate for imaging and 1 kHz for microsurgery. A fast two-axis microelectromechanical system scanning mirror is driven at resonance to produce Lissajous beam scanning at 10 frames per second. Field of view is 310 microm in diameter and the lateral and axial resolutions are 1.64 microm and 16.4 microm, respectively. Combined imaging and microsurgery is demonstrated using live cancer cells.