Investigation of molecular and protein crystals by three photon polarization resolved microscopy

Quantifying the polarization properties of non-depolarizing optical elements with virtual distorting elements

It is well known that polarization can be potentially distorted by optical elements in optical paths, which intensively influences researches and techniques related to polarization analysis. For this, we proposed to exactly quantify the polarization properties of non-depolarizing optical elements with virtual distorting elements characterized by three parameters: orientation Θ, diattenuation Γ, and retardation Δ. Utilizing the least-squares fitting method, these three parameters can be determined by fitting the measured output polarization states from the optical element with the polarization responses of VDEs. The principle of this method is detailed, and a corresponding experimental setup is further presented. The feasibility of this method has been verified in reflective mirrors and a dichroic mirror. Based on the quantification results with our setup, we have successfully compensated the polarization distortion induced by a dichroic mirror. The precision of this method has been investigated in detail with Monte Carlo simulations. The investigation results show that this method has high precision at certain measurement conditions, and the precision can be further improved.

Quantitative analysis of light scattering in polarization-resolved nonlinear microscopy

Polarization resolved nonlinear microscopy (PRNM) is a powerful technique to gain microscopic structural information in biological media. However, deep imaging in a variety of biological specimens is hindered by light scattering phenomena, which not only degrades the image quality but also affects the polarization state purity. In order to quantify this phenomenon and give a framework for polarization resolved microscopy in thick scattering tissues, we develop a characterization methodology based on four wave mixing (FWM) process. More specifically, we take advantage of two unique features of FWM, meaning its ability to produce an intrinsic in-depth local coherent source and its capacity to quantify the presence of light depolarization in isotropic regions inside a sample. By exploring diverse experimental layouts in phantoms with different scattering properties, we study systematically the influence of scattering on the nonlinear excitation and emission processes. The results show that depolarization mechanisms for the nonlinearly generated photons are highly dependent on the scattering center size, the geometry used (epi/forward) and, most importantly, on the thickness of the sample. We show that the use of an un-analyzed detection makes the polarization-dependence read-out highly robust to scattering effects, even in regimes where imaging might be degraded. The effects are illustrated in polarization resolved imaging of myelin lipid organization in mouse spinal cords.

Ultimate use of two-photon fluorescence microscopy to map orientational behavior of fluorophores

The orientational distribution of fluorophores is an important reporter of the structure and function of their molecular environment. Although this distribution affects the fluorescence signal under polarized-light excitation, its retrieval is limited to a small number of parameters. Because of this limitation, the need for a geometrical model (cone, Gaussian, etc.) to effect such retrieval is often invoked. In this work, using a symmetry decomposition of the distribution function of the fluorescent molecules, we show that polarized two-photon fluorescence based on tunable linear dichroism allows for the retrieval of this distribution with reasonable fidelity and without invoking either an a priori knowledge of the system to be investigated or a geometrical model. We establish the optimal level of detail to which any distribution can be retrieved using this technique. As applied to artificial lipid vesicles and cell membranes, the ability of this method to identify and quantify specific structural properties that complement the more traditional molecular-order information is demonstrated. In particular, we analyze situations that give access to the sharpness of the angular constraint, and to the evidence of an isotropic population of fluorophores within the focal volume encompassing the membrane. Moreover, this technique has the potential to address complex situations such as the distribution of a tethered membrane protein label in an ordered environment.