Two-photon bioimaging utilizing supercontinuum light generated by a high-peak-power picosecond semiconductor laser source.

We developed a novel scheme for two-photon fluorescence bioimaging. We generated supercontinuum (SC) light at wavelengths of 600 to 1200 nm with 774-nm light pulses from a compact turn-key semiconductor laser picosecond light pulse source that we developed. The supercontinuum light was sliced at around 1030- and 920-nm wavelengths and was amplified to kW-peak-power level using laboratory-made low-nonlinear-effects optical fiber amplifiers. We successfully demonstrated two-photon fluorescence bioimaging of mouse brain neurons containing green fluorescent protein (GFP).