Miniaturized probe for femtosecond laser microsurgery and two-photon imaging

Combined two-photon fluorescence microscopy and femtosecond laser microsurgery has many potential biomedical applications as a powerful seek-and-treat tool. Towards developing such a tool, we demonstrate a miniaturized probe which combines these techniques in a compact housing. The device is 10 x 15 x 40 mm(3) in size and uses an air-core photonic crystal fiber to deliver femtosecond laser pulses at 80 MHz repetition rate for imaging and 1 kHz for microsurgery. A fast two-axis microelectromechanical system scanning mirror is driven at resonance to produce Lissajous beam scanning at 10 frames per second. Field of view is 310 mu m in diameter and the lateral and axial resolutions are 1.64 mu m and 16.4 mu m, respectively. Combined imaging and microsurgery is demonstrated using live cancer cells. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America.