Chip-scale ultrashort pulsed lasers for two-photon fluorescence imaging and sensing

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

0967257 Schnitzer The applicants plan to create mode-locked, ultrashort-pulsed lasers that are made in a monolithic manner on a single semiconductor wafer using photonic crystal technology. In the long run, the resulting lasers could reshape how life scientists, educators and students use nonlinear optical microscopy. For researchers, large-scale or distributed two-photon imaging systems could provide wholly new capabilities for inspecting the biological world or screening large libraries of specimens by the combined use of many microscopes in parallel. The lasers will also find immediate usage in their own neuroscience research, for visualizing neuronal dynamics in awake behaving mice. In combination with microfabricated scanning mirrors, the chip-scale lasers will allow us to make tiny two-photon microscopes such that each mouse carries its own microscope on its cranium The research will be a collaboration between two Stanford labs of complementary expertise. James Harris is a pioneer in the use of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) techniques for growing semiconductor optical devices. Mark Schnitzer is deeply experienced in the design and construction of two-photon microscopes and their usages for brain imaging. As a proof-of-principle demonstration, the two groups will design, build, test, and refine 10 tiny two-photon microscopes based on chip-scale lasers.