Developing Analytical Nonlinear Microscopy Techniques to Study Biomedical Systems

Abstract

Analytical nonlinear microscopy (ANM) is an indispensable tool for quantitative imaging. Specifically, ANM has found significant utility for characterization of dynamic biomedical systems due to its high spatial and temporal resolution and intrinsic optical sectioning. Broadly defined as the interaction of more than one photon with a system of interest (e.g., molecular vibration), ANM describes numerous photophysical processes including, but not limited to, stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), transient absorption (TA), and two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF). This dissertation describes the novel development and implementation of various ANM techniques to study both fundamental and clinical biomedical systems including red blood cell oxygen saturation and hemoglobin concentration, label-free pathology, and in vivo cerebral hemodynamics and cell architecture.