Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Na Ji

Eric Betzig

Rongwen Lu

A scanning microscope includes a light source for generating a light beam having a wavelength, &#x3bb;, and beam-forming optics configured for receiving the light beam and generating a quasi-Bessel excitation beam that is directed into a sample. The quasi-Bessel beam has a lateral FWHM and an axial FWHM that is greater than ten times the lateral FWHM, and the beam-forming optics include an excitation objective having an axis oriented in a first direction. The microscope includes beam scanning optics configured for scanning the quasi-Bessel beam in one or more directions that are substantially perpendicular to the first direction, and a detector configured for detecting signal light received from positions within the sample that are illuminated by the quasi-Bessel beam. The signal light is generated in response to an interaction of the excitation beam with the sample, and the signal light is imaged, at least in part, by the excitation objective, onto the detector.

Video-rate volumetric functional imaging of the brain at synaptic resolution

Microscopy techniques in which a rear pupil of an optical system is segmented and the segments are individually controlled with a wavefront modulating device to control the direction and phase of individual beamlets of an excitation or emission beam in the optical system, thereby providing an adaptive optics correction to sample and system induced aberrations.

Adaptive optics microscopy with phase control of beamlets of a light beam

An apparatus includes a pulsed laser source that produces a pulsed laser beam at an input repetition rate and an input pulse power; a passive pulse splitter that receives the pulsed laser beam and outputs a signal including a plurality of sub-pulses for each input pulse of the pulsed laser beam, where the sub-pulses have a repetition rate that is greater than the input repetition rate and at least two of the sub-pulses have power less than the input pulse power; a sample accommodating structure configured to accommodate a sample placed in the path of a sample beam that is formed from the beam that exits the pulse splitter; and a detector that receives a signal of interest emitted from a sample accommodated by the sample accommodating structure based on the incident sample beam.

Nonlinear imaging using passive pulse splitters

A method of manipulating a focused light beam includes focusing a beam of excitation light with a lens to a focal spot within a sample, where a cross-section of the beam includes individual beamlets. Directions and/or relative phases of the individual beamlets of the excitation beam at a rear pupil of the lens are individually varied with a wavefront modulating element, and emission light emitted from the focal spot is detected while the directions or relative phases of individual beamlets are varied. The directions of individual beamlets are controlled to either maximize or minimize the emission light from the focal spot, and the relative phases of individual beamlets are controlled to increase the emission light from the focal spot.

Microscopy with adaptive optics

An apparatus includes a pulsed laser source that produces a pulsed laser beam at an input repetition rate and an input pulse power, a passive pulse splitter that receives the pulsed laser beam and outputs a signal including a plurality of sub-pulses for each input pulse of the pulsed laser beam, a sample, and a detector. The output signal has a repetition rate that is greater than the input repetition rate and the powers of each of the sub-pulses are less than the input pulse power. The sample is placed in the path of a sample beam that is formed from the beam that exits the pulse splitter. The detector receives a signal of interest emitted from the sample.

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Ashburn, VA, United States of America

Na Ji