Abstract

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy offers a 3D imaging technique with inherent chemical selectivity based vibration spectra of molecules.[1] A major drawback of this technique is the presence of a large non-resonant background arising from the electronic contributions. We have demonstrated polarization CARS (P-CARS) microscopy that effectively suppresses the non-resonant background and improves the vibrational contrast.[2] P-CARS makes use of the polarization difference between the resonant signal and the non-resonant background. A polarization analyzer is used before the detector to reject the non-resonant background. With P-CARS microscopy, we are able to image protein distribution in living cells with a high contrast, as shown in Figure 1.

© 2002 Optical Society of America