Ultrafast optical pulse delivery with fibers for nonlinear microscopy.

Nonlinear microscopies including multiphoton excitation fluorescence microscopy and multiple-harmonic generation microscopy have recently gained popularity for cellular and tissue imaging. The optimization of these imaging methods for minimally invasive use requires optical fibers to conduct light into tight space, where free-space delivery is difficult. The delivery of high-peak power laser pulses with optical fibers is limited by dispersion resulting from nonlinear refractive index responses. In this article, we characterize a variety of commonly used optical fibers in terms of how they affect pulse profile and imaging performance of nonlinear microscopy; the following parameters are quantified: spectral bandwidth and temporal pulse width, two-photon excitation efficiency, and optical resolution. A theoretical explanation for the measured performance of these fibers is also provided. 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.