Multimodal nonlinear optical polarizing microscopy of long-range molecular order in liquid crystals

TL;DR

This paper introduces a multimodal nonlinear optical polarizing microscopy technique that simultaneously images molecular orientation features in liquid crystals, providing comprehensive 3D mapping of mesomorphic order with a single laser source.

Contribution

The work presents a novel multimodal microscopy method combining multiple nonlinear optical modes using a single femtosecond laser, enabling detailed 3D mapping of molecular order in soft matter.

Findings

Successful simultaneous imaging in multiple nonlinear modes

Consistent 3D molecular orientation maps obtained

Technique applicable to soft matter analysis

Abstract

We demonstrate orientation-sensitive multimodal nonlinear optical polarizing microscopy capable of probing orientational, polar, and biaxial features of mesomorphic ordering in soft matter. This technique achieves simultaneous imaging in broadband coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering, multi-photon excitation fluorescence, and multi-harmonic generation polarizing microscopy modes and is based on the use of a single femtosecond laser and a photonic crystal fiber as sources of the probing light. We show the viability of this technique for mapping of three dimensional patterns of molecular orientations and that images obtained in different microscopy modes are consistent with each other.