Functional Imaging by Controlled Nonlinear Optical Phenomena

Ultrafast lasers allow high-precision imaging and manipulation forbiological and medical applications. Nonlinear optical microscopyhas provided researchers with unique possibilities ofthree-dimensional imaging of biological cells and tissues.Nonlinear optical imaging technique is a rapidly emerging researcharea with widespread fundamental research and clinicalapplications. Nonlinear optical imaging allows both structural andfunctional imaging with cellular level resolution imaging inbiological systems. The introduction of endogenous or exogenousprobes can selectively enhance contrast for molecular targets in aliving cell as well as supply functional information on processes.With the aim to control nonlinear optical processes and to obtainfunctional images, nonlinear optical processes can be controlled byphoto-controlled probes and/or parameters of ultrafast laserpulses, such as time, space, polarization, and phase. This book gives an overview of the nonlinear optical process byultrafast laser pulses and explains how the basics of nonlinearoptical microscopy led to the most advanced techniques ofphoto-controlled nonlinear optical microscopy.