Two-photon fluorescence microscope with a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber

Self-phase-modulation and group velocity dispersion of near IR femtosecond pulses in fibers restrict their use in two-photon fluorescence microscopy (TPFM). Here we demonstrate a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber based two-photon fluorescence microscope with low nonlinearity and dispersion effects. We use this fiber-based TPFM system to take two-photon fluorescence (chlorophyll) images of mesophyll tissue in the leaf of Rhaphidophora aurea. With less than 2mW average power exposure on the leaf at 755nm, the near zero-dispersion wavelength, chloroplasts distribution inside the mesophyll cells can be identified with a sub-micron spatial resolution. The acquired image quality is comparable to that acquired by the conventional fiber-free TPFM system, due to the negligible temporal pulse broadening effect.