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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

Mid-Infrared Quantum Scanning Microscopy with Visible Light

Josué Ricardo León-Torres, Jorge Fuenzalida, Marta Gilaberte Basset, Sebastian Töpfer, Markus Gräfe

Published Jun 26, 2023• 1 citation

Abstract

Laser scanning microscopy (LSM) is known to be the workhorse for modern life-science, it allows to get new insights into a variety of biological processes. LSM together with illumination in the mid infrared region (Mid-IR) permits to map the chemical composition of samples to a space frame. However, low-light observations in the Mid-IR spectrum are still challenging and a limiting factor for a faster development. A label-free quantum scanning imaging system is presented here, capable of performing the detection in the visible regime, while the illumination is carried out in the Mid-IR region. Our quantum imaging with undetected light implementation aims to retrieve amplitude and phase images of biological samples containing a variety of functional groups that are present in the Mid-IR region

DOI: 10.1109/cleo/europe-eqec57999.2023.10232292

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Laser scanning microscopy (LSM) is known to be the workhorse for modern life-science, it allows to get new insights into a variety of biological processes. LSM together with illumination in the mid infrared region (Mid-IR) permits to map the chemical composition of samples to a space frame. However, low-light observations in the Mid-IR spectrum are still challenging and a limiting factor for a faster development. A label-free quantum scanning imaging system is presented here, capable of performing the detection in the visible regime, while the illumination is carried out in the Mid-IR region. Our quantum imaging with undetected light implementation aims to retrieve amplitude and phase images of biological samples containing a variety of functional groups that are present in the Mid-IR region

The mid-infrared (MIR) region of the electromagnetic spectrum spans from 2- to 25-

μ\mathrm{m}

, serving as a valuable tool for accessing rich chemical information. Functional groups, lipids, and other complex molecules can be analyzed by optical absorption measurements due to their vibrational modes in the MIR spectral region. Over the past few decades, this field has faced challenges due to difficulties in generating MIR light and the limited maturity of detection systems in this spectral range. Quantum imaging with undetected light (QIUL) provides a spectrally tuneable photon-pair source, in which the sample can be illuminated with MIR light while visible (VIS) light is employed for detection and image reconstruction, overcoming the detection limitations and benefiting from the rich chemical information of the MIR spectral region. All previous QIUL implementations are based on spatial correlations, which are never perfect and thus hindered the imaging performance. In this work, we implement a raster-scanning QIUL method that is independent of the strength of the spatial correlations and achieves a spatial resolution beyond the limitations of these correlations.

Owing to its capacity for unique (bio)-chemical specificity, microscopy with mid-infrared (IR) illumination holds tremendous promise for a wide range of biomedical and industrial applications. The primary limitation, however, remains detection, with current mid-IR detection technology often marrying inferior technical capabilities with prohibitive costs. Here, we experimentally show how nonlinear interferometry with entangled light can provide a powerful tool for mid-IR microscopy while only requiring near-IR detection with a silicon-based camera. In this proof-of-principle implementation, we demonstrate widefield imaging over a broad wavelength range covering 3.4 to 4.3 μm and demonstrate a spatial resolution of 35 μm for images containing 650 resolved elements. Moreover, we demonstrate that our technique is suitable for acquiring microscopic images of biological tissue samples in the mid-IR. These results form a fresh perspective for potential relevance of quantum imaging techniques in the life sciences.

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