Broadband stimulated Raman microscopy with 0.1 ms pixel acquisition time

Femtosecond stimulated Raman microscopy (FSRM) is a nonlinear technique for rapid broadband Raman imaging. It utilizes a few femtosecond probe pulse and a narrow bandwidth pump pulse. Using a fast (20 kHz) multi-channel detector, stimulated Raman spectra can be recorded with an acquisition time as short as 0.1 ms. In this Letter, spectra of neat benzonitrile at different acquisition speeds are presented to benchmark the FSRM setup. Furthermore, chemical maps of a multi-phase polymer blend are recorded using the fastest acquisition rate possible with the current instrument. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America