Three-photon light-sheet fluorescence microscopy

Abstract

We present the first demonstration of three-photon excitation light-sheet fluorescence microscopy. Light-sheet fluorescence microscopy in single- and two-photon modes has emerged as a powerful wide-field, low photo-damage technique for fast volumetric imaging of biological samples. We extend this imaging modality to the three-photon regime enhancing its penetration depth. Our present study uses a standard conventional femtosecond pulsed laser at 1000 nm wavelength for the imaging of 450 {micro}m diameter cellular spheroids. In addition, we show, experimentally and through numerical simulations, the potential advantages in three-photon light-sheet microscopy of using propagation-invariant Bessel beams in preference to Gaussian beams.