{"id":1369,"date":"2024-10-13T14:33:34","date_gmt":"2024-10-13T14:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novanta.com\/precision-manufacturing\/?post_type=novanta_tech_paper&#038;p=1369"},"modified":"2026-07-24T15:57:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:57:32","slug":"ultrashort-pulses-in-two-photon-microscopy","status":"publish","type":"novanta_tech_paper","link":"https:\/\/novanta.com\/precision-manufacturing\/resources\/whitepapers\/ultrashort-pulses-in-two-photon-microscopy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Benefits of Ultrashort Pulses in Two-Photon Microscopy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-technical-paper-overview\">Technical Paper Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-choosing-an-ultrashort-pulse-laser-system-for-two-photon-microscopy-pulse-duration-at-the-sample-not-at-the-laser-output-decides-tpm-benefit\"><strong>Choosing an Ultrashort Pulse Laser System for Two-Photon Microscopy<\/strong><br><em>Pulse duration at the sample, not at the laser output, decides TPM benefit.<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two-photon microscopy has stood still on a 100-150 fs \/ 80-100 MHz excitation envelope for nearly thirty years \u2014 not because sub-10 fs pulses don&#8217;t help (they do: deeper imaging, higher fluorescence efficiency, multi-fluorophore excitation without tuning, less photo-damage), but because every additional optic between the laser and the sample stretches the pulse. By the time a sub-10 fs pulse reaches the focal plane through a standard 63\u00d7 objective, dispersion has destroyed most of what the laser delivered. The result: most life-science labs don&#8217;t have a resident photonics engineer to manage chirped-mirror pre-compensation, so they default to safer 150 fs pulses and accept the imaging-depth ceiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This technical paper documents how Novanta&#8217;s venteon ultra (<5.5 fs measured), venteon vChirp dispersion-modeling software, DCM chirped-mirror set, and d-scan pulse-characterization + auto-compression unit work as a closed-loop system that delivers&nbsp;<strong>6.4 fs FWHM pulses at the sample plane<\/strong>&nbsp;through a standard 63\u00d7, 0.75 NA objective \u2014 without requiring photonics expertise at the microscope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-key-takeaways-include\">Key takeaways include:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Why sub-10 fs pulses have remained specialist for 30 years \u2014 dispersion through the microscope optical train destroys what the laser delivers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How vChirp + d-scan close the loop: software models the beam path, characterization measures the pulse at the sample, auto-compression adjusts in real time<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When to specify the venteon ultra system over a stock 100 fs Ti:Sapphire: deep-tissue imaging, multi-fluorophore excitation, photo-damage-sensitive live-cell experiments<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What the venteon ultra delivers: <5 fs transform-limited \/ <5.5 fs measured pulses, broad spectral output covering the full Ti:Sapphire emission range<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A practical workflow: input the beam-path optics into vChirp \u2192 predict the chirped-mirror stack \u2192 measure with d-scan at the sample \u2192 auto-compensate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"h-\">Download the full technical paper for the optical-train schematic with the d-scan auto-compression loop, the dispersion-modeling logic behind vChirp, and the measured 6.4 fs FWHM result after a standard objective \u2014 before specifying a 100 fs TPM source and capping your imaging depth, contrast, and multi-fluorophore range on dispersion you could have compensated for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Technical Paper Overview Choosing an Ultrashort Pulse Laser System for Two-Photon MicroscopyPulse duration at the sample, not at the laser output, decides TPM benefit. Two-photon microscopy has stood still on a 100-150 fs \/ 80-100 MHz excitation envelope for nearly thirty years \u2014 not because sub-10 fs pulses don&#8217;t help (they do: deeper imaging, higher [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":1112,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"card_thumbnail_id":0,"show_table_of_content":true},"class_list":["post-1369","novanta_tech_paper","type-novanta_tech_paper","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.0 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ultrashort Pulses in Two-Photon Microscopy | Novanta<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This whitepaper explains how ultrashort laser pulses improve two-photon microscopy depth and resolution for biomedical imaging laser applications.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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