Lyubov V. Doronina-Amitonova

Electron spin manipulation and readout through an optical fiber

The electron spin of nitrogen--vacancy (NV) centers in diamond offers a solid-state quantum bit and enables high-precision magnetic-field sensing on the nanoscale. Implementation of these approaches in a fiber format would offer unique opportunities for a broad range of technologies ranging from quantum information to neuroscience and bioimaging. Here, we demonstrate an ultracompact fiber-optic probe where a diamond microcrystal with a well-defined orientation of spin quantization NV axes is attached to the fiber tip, allowing the electron spins of NV centers to be manipulated, polarized, and read out through a fiber-optic waveguide integrated with a two-wire microwave transmission line. The microwave field transmitted through this line is used to manipulate the orientation of electron spins in NV centers through the electron-spin resonance tuned by an external magnetic field. The electron spin is then optically initialized and read out, with the initializing laser radiation and the photoluminescence spin-readout return from NV centers delivered by the same optical fiber.

Fiber-optic magnetic-field imaging

We demonstrate a scanning fiber-optic probe for magnetic-field imaging where nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers are coupled to an optical fiber integrated with a two-wire microwave transmission line. The electron spin of NV centers in a diamond microcrystal attached to the tip of the fiber probe is manipulated by a frequency-modulated microwave field and is initialized by laser radiation transmitted through the optical tract of the fiber probe. The two-dimensional profile of the magnetic field is imaged with a high speed and high sensitivity using the photoluminescence spin-readout return from NV centers, captured and delivered by the same optical fiber.

Implantable fiber-optic interface for parallel multisite long-term optical dynamic brain interrogation in freely moving mice

Seeing the big picture of functional responses within large neural networks in a freely functioning brain is crucial for understanding the cellular mechanisms behind the higher nervous activity, including the most complex brain functions, such as cognition and memory. As a breakthrough toward meeting this challenge, implantable fiber-optic interfaces integrating advanced optogenetic technologies and cutting-edge fiber-optic solutions have been demonstrated, enabling a long-term optogenetic manipulation of neural circuits in freely moving mice. Here, we show that a specifically designed implantable fiber-optic interface provides a powerful tool for parallel long-term optical interrogation of distinctly separate, functionally different sites in the brain of freely moving mice. This interface allows the same groups of neurons lying deeply in the brain of a freely behaving mouse to be reproducibly accessed and optically interrogated over many weeks, providing a long-term dynamic detection of genome activity in response to a broad variety of pharmacological and physiological stimuli.

Photonic-crystal-fiber platform for multicolor multilabel neurophotonic studies

A supercontinuum source based on a highly nonlinear photonic-crystal fiber (PCF) is combined with a hollow-core photonic-band-gap fiber (PBGF) spectral filter for a multiplex, high-repetition-rate fiber-based interrogation of fluorescent-protein neuron-activity reporters, and fluorophore conjugate antibody labels in the brain of transgenic mice. The hollow PBGF selects those parts of the supercontinuum output of the highly nonlinear PCF that can efficiently excite the fluorescence of the biomarkers but supports no guidance within the bands, where the supercontinuum light scattered by the brain tissues could hinder the detection of the fluorescence response of the biomarkers, thus allowing a high-contrast detection of well-resolved responses from each type of biomarkers.

Ionization penalty in nonlinear Raman neuroimaging.

Light-assisted ionization accompanying coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) of ultrashort laser pulses in brain tissue is shown to manifest itself in a detectable blueshift of the anti-Stokes signal. This blueshift can serve as an indicator of ionization processes in CARS-based neuroimaging.

Raman detection of cell proliferation probes with antiresonance-guiding hollow fibers

Antiresonance-guiding hollow-core fibers are shown to enable highly sensitive detection of cell proliferation probes using Raman scattering within the region where the cellular Raman activity is minimal. We demonstrate that such fibers can substantially reduce the level of the background compared to standard index-guiding optical fibers, thus radically improving the sensitivity of Raman detection of DNA synthesis in cells and offering a powerful tool for fiber-based live-cell imaging.

Air-guided photonic-crystal-fiber pulse-compression delivery of multimegawatt femtosecond laser output for nonlinear-optical imaging and neurosurgery

Large-core hollow photonic-crystal fibers (PCFs) are shown to enable a fiber-format air-guided delivery of ultrashort infrared laser pulses for neurosurgery and nonlinear-optical imaging. With an appropriate dispersion precompensation, an anomalously dispersive 15-lm-core hollow PCF compresses 510-fs, 1070-nm light pulses to a pulse width of about 110 fs, providing a peak power in excess of 5MW. The compressed PCF output is employed to induce a local photodisruption of corpus callosum tissues in mouse brain and is used to generate the third harmonic in brain tissues, which is captured by the PCF and delivered to a detector through the PCF cladding. V C 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3681777]

Nonlinear-optical brain anatomy by harmonic-generation and coherent Raman microscopy on a compact femtosecond laser platform

An extended-cavity Cr:forsterite laser is integrated with a photonic-crystal fiber soliton frequency shifter and a periodically poled lithium niobate spectrum compressor for simultaneous harmonic-generation and coherent Raman brain imaging. Adapting the laser beam focusing geometry to the tissue morphology is shown to enable complementarity enhancement in tissue imaging by second- and third-harmonic generation, as well as coherent Raman scattering, facilitating quantitative image analysis.

Multicolor in vivo brain imaging with a microscope-coupled fiber-bundle microprobe

A fiber-bundle microprobe coupled to a confocal optical microscope is shown to enable multicolor in vivo fluorescence brain imaging. A bundle of several thousands of 2.4-μm-diameter optical fibers is employed to deliver multiwavelength laser excitation radiation and to transmit multicolor images from hippocampus tissues in living transgenic mice by picking up a multiplex fluorescent response from green fluorescent protein, nucleic acid counterstains, and neuron tracers.

Fiber-optic probes for in vivo depth-resolved neuron-activity mapping

Specialty fiber probes are used for in vivo depth-resolved mapping of neuron activity through the optical detection of fluorescent-protein reporters expressed inside the living brain of anesthetized transgenic mice. Supercontinuum radiation produced by highly nonlinear photonic-crystal fibers is employed to demonstrate a simultaneous multicolor interrogation of several biomarkers in a model aqueous solution system, thus suggesting the way toward a multiplex mapping of various types of neuron dynamics inside the living brain.