Aberration-corrected three-dimensional non-inertial scanning for femtosecond lasers.

Abstract

Large aberrations are induced by non-collimated light when the convergence or divergence of the incident beam on the back-pupil plane of the objective lens is adjusted for 3D non-inertial scanning. These aberrations significantly degrade the focus quality and decrease the peak intensity of the femtosecond laser focal spot. Here, we describe an aberration-corrected 3D non-inertial scanning method for femtosecond lasers based on a digital micromirror device (DMD) that is used for both beam scanning and aberration correction. An imaging setup is used to detect the focal spot in the 3D space, and an iterative optimization algorithm is used to optimize the focal spot. We demonstrate the application of our proposed approach in two-photon imaging. With correction for the 200-µm out-of-focal plane, the optical axial resolution improves from 7.67 to 3.25 µm, and the intensity of the fluorescence signal exhibits an almost fivefold improvement when a 40× objective lens is used. This aberration-corrected 3D non-inertial scanning method for femtosecond lasers offers a new approach for a variety of potential applications, including nonlinear optical imaging, microfabrication, and optical storage.