System and method for optical imaging with vertical cavity surface emitting lasers

摘要

The present invention uses vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) as illumination source for simultaneous imaging of blood flow and tissue oxygenation dynamics in vivo, or a means to monitor neural activity in brain slices ex vivo. The speckle pattern on the brain tissue due to a VCSEL's coherence properties is the main challenge to producing low-noise high-brightness illumination, required for evaluating tissue oxygenation. Moreover, using oxide-confined VCSELs we show a fast switching from a single-mode operation scheme to a special multi-modal, multi-wavelength rapid sweep scheme. The multi-modal, multi-wavelength rapid sweep scheme reduces noise values to within a factor of 40% compared to non-coherent LED illumination, enabling high-brightness VCSELs to act as efficient miniature light sources for various brain imaging modalities and other imaging applications. These VCSELs are promising for long-term portable continuous monitoring of brain dynamics in freely moving animals.

主权项

1. An optical imaging system comprising:
(a) at least one multi-modal, multi-wavelength laser light source including at least a given laser light source configured to produce different illumination patterns based on a current level provided to the given laser light source; (b) an image capture device; and (c) a controller linked to the at least one multi-modal, multi-wavelength laser light source and the image capture device, the controller configured to
control a coherence property of at least the given laser light source by varying the current level provided to at least the given laser light source to shift between the different illumination patterns, so as to produce a current sweep illumination pattern, andcontrol the image capture device to capture images as the current level is varied; wherein varying the current level provided to at least the given laser light source to produce the current sweep illumination pattern enables the control of one or more of coherence effects and speckle noise properties of the captured images.