Topinformationen

Harmonic nanocrystals

They are based on materials like LiNbO₃ or KNbO₃. Thanks to a lack of symmetry in the crystal structure, they show several nonlinear effects like second harmonic, third harmonic, sum and difference frequency generation. The possibility to decrease their size in the nanoscale till 5 nm opens the possibility for new intriguing physical effects and applications in renewable energy as well as biology.

In biology they are well suited to be used as marker for in-vivo deep imaging. In this respect, we recently demonstrated that they are the only marker that can be used in the fourth biological window (NIR-IV 2100-2300nm), a spectral region which is gaining interest in the recent years for medical applications. 

Nonlinear microscopy

This microscopy technique is based on the use of femtosecond pulsed laser as light source.  It become pupolar in the last decades because it allows higher penetration depth, 3D imaging, better signal to noise ratio and photodamage limited to the focal point. This  technology is still evolving since its original appeareance as nowdays new laser sources with several adjustable parameters (wavelength, repetition rate, energy per pulse, etc..) are available in one single turn-key device offering access to new experimental configurations.

This research focuses on these unexplored laser configurations and their advantages in microscopy studies. In particular, the commercial techniques work with laser having an energy per pulse in the nanoJoule regime while here the attention is devoted to a configuration exploiting microJoule. This is the key concept of the new conceived TIGER microscope installed in the CellNanOs facility.