Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Gert T Hooft

Bernardus Hendrikus Wilhelmus Hendriks

Stein Kuiper

The invention relates an optical probe () suitable for non-linear optics such as two-photon imaging for medical purposes. The probe has an optical guide () and a lens system () positioned rigidly at an end portion () of the optical guide. Additionally, a housing () with a cavity for the optical guide () and the lens system (), the housing having at its distal end a transparent window (), is comprised in the probe. The optical guide () with the lens system () is displaceably mounted within the housing, preferably in a transverse direction. Also, the housing () has an auxiliary, peripheral optical guide () optically connected to the transparent window (). The invention is advantageous for obtaining an optical probe with a significantly larger collection efficiency. The optical probe may advantageous be applied in connection with two-photon spectroscopy where both ballisitic photons and diffusing fluorescence photons can be used in the detection of an event.

Optical probe

An imaging system with two modalities has a catheter with an optical lens system situated at an end of the catheter and optically connected to optical guide. The lens system has a numerical aperture which is changeable between a first aperture and a second larger numerical aperture. The imaging system also has an imaging unit for optical imaging with the catheter. First and second imaging modalities are optically connectable with the optical lens system of the catheter. The imaging system can change between imaging in two modes: (1) the first numerical aperture of the optical lens system and the first imaging modality of the imaging unit, and (2) the second numerical aperture of the optical lens system and the second imaging modality of the imaging unit.

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Eindhoven, Netherlands

Gert T Hooft