CARS polarized microscopy of three-dimensional director structures in liquid crystals

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method using polarized CARS microscopy to visualize three-dimensional director structures in liquid crystals, providing detailed spatial mapping of molecular orientations.

Contribution

It presents a novel application of polarized CARS microscopy for 3D imaging of liquid crystal structures, demonstrating consistency with fluorescence imaging and structure models.

Findings

CARS microscopy effectively maps molecular orientations in 3D

Single-scan CARS and fluorescence images are consistent

The method reveals detailed director structures in smectic liquid crystals

Abstract

We demonstrate three-dimensional vibrational imaging of director structures in liquid crystals using coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) polarized microscopy. Spatial mapping of the structures is based on sensitivity of a polarized CARS signal to orientation of anisotropic molecules in liquid crystals. As an example, we study structures in a smectic material and demonstrate that single-scan CARS and two-photon fluorescence images of molecular orientation patterns are consistent with each other and with the structure model.