Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2017
Keywords
FAST CARS, laser pulse shaping, nanoantenna, quantum biophotonics, SECARS, TECARS
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2017-0066
Abstract
Quantum nano-biophotonics as the science of nanoscale light-matter interactions in biological systems requires developing new spectroscopic tools for addressing the challenges of detecting and disentangling weak congested optical signals. Nanoscale bio-imaging addresses the challenge of the detection of weak resonant signals from a few target biomolecules in the presence of the nonresonant background from many undesired molecules. In addition, the imaging must be performed rapidly to capture the dynamics of biological processes in living cells and tissues. Label-free non-invasive spectroscopic techniques are required to minimize the external perturbation effects on biological systems. Various approaches were developed to satisfy these requirements by increasing the selectivity and sensitivity of biomolecular detection. Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopies provide many orders of magnitude enhancement of chemically specific Raman signals. Femtosecond adaptive spectroscopic techniques for CARS (FAST CARS) were developed to suppress the nonresonant background and optimize the efficiency of the coherent optical signals. This perspective focuses on the application of these techniques to nanoscale bio-imaging, discussing their advantages and limitations as well as the promising opportunities and challenges of the combined coherence and surface enhancements in surface-enhanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (SECARS) and tip-enhanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (TECARS) and the corresponding surface-enhanced FAST CARS techniques. Laser pulse shaping of near-field excitations plays an important role in achieving these goals and increasing the signal enhancement.
Rights Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Nanophotonics, v. 7, issue 3, p. 523-548
Scholar Commons Citation
Voronin, Dmitri V.; Zhang, Zhenrong; Sokolov, Alexei V.; and Scully, Marlan O., "Surface-Enhanced FAST CARS: En Route to Quantum Nano-Biophotonics" (2017). Physics Faculty Publications. 39.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/phy_facpub/39
