• coherent Raman
• CRS
• imaging
• LabVIEW
• microscopy
• multichannel
• multiplexing
• Raman
• spectroscopy
• SRS
• stimulated Raman

Coherent Raman scattering (CRS) microscopy has emerged as a high-speed, high sensitivity vibrational imaging platform. Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopes, in particular, with their subcellular resolution, combined with the capability to collect precise vibrational signatures, are allowing to perform quantitative chemical imaging even in live cells. Being intrinsically label-free, vibrational spectroscopic microscopes allow the measurement of biological samples without perturbing the function of molecules. SRS has the advantage to be background free and thus directly comparable with spontaneous Raman scattering, giving access to the wide catalog of spectra already existing in the literature.
The aim of this thesis work is to characterize and improve the signal to noise ratio measurement of an SRS microscope which exploits spectral shaping by a narrowband and rapidly tunable Acousto Optical Tunable Filter. A multichannel approach, performing Hadamard reconstruction method, has been implemented for spectra acquisition, and its performance evaluated.
The configuration developed allows performing a spectral scanning from the Raman fingerprint region to the CH-stretch region without any change of the optical setup therefore ensuring high acquisition speed. Application of the SRS microscope to broadband hyperspectral imaging of biological samples is demonstrated.