Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy by dispersive wave generations in a polarization maintaining photonic crystal fiber

Abstract

The polarization maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PM-PCF) with two zero dispersion wavelengths is designed and fabricated by the improved stack-and-draw technology in our laboratory. The broadband blue-shifted and red-shifted dispersive waves (DWs) are efficiently generated from soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS) along the slow axis of PM-PCF. By optimizing the pump parameters and the fiber length, the polarized DWs centered in the normal dispersion region can be used as the pump and Stokes pulses for the high resolution coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the widely tunable relevant CARS wavelengths can be obtained by adjusting the pump wavelength. The CARS microscopy based on DWs can find important applications in detecting the biological and chemical samples with the C = N, S-H, C-H, and O-H stretch vibration resonances of 2100 to 2400 cm-1, 2500 to 2650 cm-1, 2700 to 3000 cm-1, and 3000 to 3750cm-1.