A compact acousto-optic lens for 2D and 3D femtosecond based 2-photon microscopy

We describe a high speed 3D Acousto-Optic Lens Microscope (AOLM) for femtosecond 2-photon imaging. By optimizing the design of the 4 AO Deflectors (AODs) and by deriving new control algorithms, we have developed a compact spherical AOL with a low temporal dispersion that enables 2-photon imaging at 10-fold lower power than previously reported. We show that the AOLM can perform high speed 2D raster-scan imaging (>150 Hz) without scan rate dependent astigmatism. It can deflect and focus a laser beam in a 3D random access sequence at 30 kHz and has an extended focusing range (>137 mu m; 40X 0.8NA objective). These features are likely to make the AOLM a useful tool for studying fast physiological processes distributed in 3D space (C) 2010 Optical Society of America