Deep Imaging in Scattering Media with Single Photon Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy (SPIM)

• Main Authors: Pediredla, Adithya Kumar, Zhang, Shizheng, Avants, Ben, Ye, Fan, Nagayama, Shin, Chen, Ziying, Kemere, Caleb, Robinson, Jacob, Veeraraghavan, Ashok
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 23-04-2016
• Subjects: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors; Physics - Optics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1604.06965

In most biological tissues, light scattering due to small differences in
refractive index limits the depth of optical imaging systems. Two-photon
microscopy (2PM), which significantly reduces the scattering of the excitation
light, has emerged as the most common method to image deep within scattering
biological tissue. This technique, however, requires high-power pulsed lasers
that are both expensive and difficult to integrate into compact portable
systems. In this paper, using a combination of theoretical and experimental
techniques, we show that Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy (SPIM) can
image nearly as deep as 2PM without the need for a high-powered pulsed laser.
Compared to other single photon imaging techniques like epifluorescence and
confocal microscopy, SPIM can image more than twice as deep in scattering media
(approximately 10 times the mean scattering length). These results suggest that
SPIM has the potential to provide deep imaging in scattering media in
situations where 2PM systems would be too large or costly.