The imaging properties of optical microscopes are often compromised by aberrations that reduce image resolution and contrast. Adaptive optics technology has been employed in various systems to correct these aberrations and restore performance. This has required various departures from the traditional adaptive optics schemes that are used in astronomy. This review discusses the sources of aberrations, their effects and their correction with adaptive optics, particularly in confocal and two-photon microscopes. Different methods of wavefront sensing, indirect aberration measurement and aberration correction devices are discussed. Applications of adaptive optics in the related areas of optical data storage, optical tweezers and micro/nanofabrication are also reviewed.
Er/Yb co-doped NBN photochromics exhibit excellent luminescence readout capability by using a two-photon absorption mode with extremely low destruction on information recording.
A novel multibranched nonlinear dye，4, 4´, 4´´-tris(9-carbazyl-trans-styryl) triphenylamine (TCSTPA)，has been designed and synthesized aimed at two-photon absorption applications. Two-photon absorption cross section of the multibranched dye was obtained as high as 2.35×10-47cm4s photon-1molecule-1pumped with femtosecond laser beam at 800 nm. One-photon and two-photon absorption optical properties were demonstrated in solutions. Three-dimensional (3D) optical data storage experiments were carried out by two-photon photobleaching in the multibranched-dye doped polymethylmethacryate (PMMA) with a 3D data storage density of approximate 14 Gbits/cm3. Research on the two-photon photobleaching ability shows the novel two-photon absorption dye with multibranched molecular motif has higher photosensitivity than traditional linear two-photon absorption dyes do.
Adaptive optics in microscopy