Parallel multiphoton microscopy with cylindrically polarized multifocal arrays.

Diffraction-limited cylindrically polarized multifocal arrays are created in the focal region of a high numerical-aperture objective for multiphoton microscopy by applying the dynamic phase modulation on an incident light beam. We show that this kind of cylindrical-polarization multifocal multiphoton microscopy exhibits a parallel imaging capacity but also a dynamic switching-on or -off feature of individual focal spots. The parallel multiphoton microscopy results of the polarization-sensitive gold nanorods under the illumination of radially or azimuthally polarized multifocal arrays allow for the fast determination of the orientation of nanorods.