Stimulated Raman scattering microscopy on biological cellular machinery

Abstract

Benefiting from the developments of advanced optical microscopy techniques, the mysteries of biological functions at the cellular and subcellular levels have been continuously revealed. Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy is a rapidly growing technique that has attracted broad attentions and become a powerful tool for biology and biomedicine, largely thanks to its chemical specificity, high sensitivity and fast image speed. This review paper introduces the principles of SRS, discusses the technical developments and implementations of SRS microscopy, then highlights and summarizes its applications on biological cellular machinery and finally shares our visions of potential breakthroughs in the future.

Keywords

• Nonlinear optical microscopy
• vibrational spectral imaging
• coherent Raman scattering
• biological cells