5. Supercontinuum source applications

Example of fluorescence imaging

As mentioned above, the spectral properties of supercontinuum sources make them particularly interesting for fluorescence imaging. Indeed, many fluorescent markers used in biology, biochemistry or biophysics absorb visible light, only to fluoresce at slightly longer wavelengths. In general, fluorescence imaging devices have several visible lasers adapted to the absorption bands of the useful fluorophores. The use of n different markers therefore requires the use of n different lasers. The main advantage of supercontinuum sources is that a single source can replace all n lasers required for the imaging experiment. This not only represents a significant cost saving, but also a significant improvement in versatility, since the alignment of the source in the microscope does not have to be modified each time the...