MULTIFOCAL SCANNING MICROSCOPY SYSTEMS AND METHODS

摘要

In the systems and methods of the present invention a multifocal multiphoton imaging system has a signal to noise ratio (SNR) that is reduced by over an order of magnitude at imaging depth equal to twice the mean free path scattering length of the specimen. An MMM (multi-photon multi-focal microscopy) system based on an area detector (120A) such as a multianode photomultiplier tube (MAPMT) that is optimized for high- speed tissue imaging. The specimen (105A) is raster- scanned with an array (151A,152A) of excitation light beams. The emission photons from the array of excitation foci are collected simultaneously by a MAPMT and the signals from each anode are detected using high sensitivity, low noise single photon counting circuits. An image is formed by the temporal encoding of the integrated signal with a raster scanning pattern. A deconvolution procedure taking account of the spatial distribution and the raster temporal encoding of collected photons can be used to improve decay coefficient . We demonstrate MAPMT-based MMM can provide significantly better contrast than CCD- based existing systems.