Nonlinear optical imaging of lyotropic cholesteric liquid crystals

We use nonlinear optical microscopy combining Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) microscopy and Two-Photon Excited Fluorescence (2PEF) signals to characterize collagen lyotropic liquid crystals. We show that SHG signals provide highly contrasted images of the three-dimensional texture of cholesteric patterns with submicrometer lateral resolution. Moreover, simultaneous recording of the 2PEF signal enables in situ quantitative mapping of the molecular concentration and its correlation with the observed textures. We apply this technique to the characterization of biomimetic textures obtained in concentrated collagen liquid solutions. We successfully image biologically relevant organizations that are similar to the collagen organization found as a stabilized state in compact bones. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America