Nonlinear optical microscopy with an obscuration-free, freeform reflective objective.

ABSTRACT: Nonlinear optical (NLO) imaging platforms traditionally rely on refractive microscope objectives, which suffer from chromatic aberrations and temporal dispersion of pulsed excitation light. These issues degrade spatial imaging properties and signal brightness. Furthermore, the limited transmission range of refractive materials restricts NLO imaging, especially for applications requiring short- to mid-wave infrared excitation. While reflective microscope objectives offer an achromatic solution and broader transmission range (from visible to mid-infrared), conventional Schwarzschild designs have a central obscuration, which limits transmission throughput, imparts diffraction effects into the images, and, more generally, hinders the adoption of reflective optics in NLO microscopy. We overcome

SUBMITTER: Luna Palacios YY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12642983 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature