Vibrational spectroscopic imaging is useful and important in biological and medical studies. Yet, vibrational imaging in the terahertz region ($<300{\mathrm{cm}}^{-1}$) under biologically relevant conditions is currently unavailable, as none of the available methods possesses a sufficient sensitivity and high spatial resolution at the same time. Here, we develop a terahertz coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (THz-CARS) microscope with a high sensitivity and high spatial resolution that shows chemically selective imaging of biological tissues by using low-frequency collective modes of the corresponding constituents, filling the existing energy scale gap for vibrational imaging in the THz region. The observation of collective modes of biomacromolecules, such as collagen and non-collagenous proteins, may have significant implications for elucidating their corresponding biological functions, and the methodology presented may find wider applications in biomedical research.

中文翻译：

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太赫兹相干抗斯托克斯拉曼散射显微镜

振动光谱成像在生物学和医学研究中是有用且重要的。然而，太赫兹区域的振动成像（$<300{\mathrm{厘米}}^{-\mathrm{1个}}$）目前在生物学上相关的条件下不可用，因为没有一种可用的方法同时具有足够的灵敏度和高的空间分辨率。在这里，我们开发了具有高灵敏度和高空间分辨率的太赫兹相干抗斯托克斯拉曼散射（THz-CARS）显微镜，该显微镜通过使用相应成分的低频集体模式显示生物组织的化学选择性成像，从而填充了现有能量太赫兹区域中振动成像的比例尺间隙。观察诸如胶原蛋白和非胶原蛋白之类的生物大分子的集体模式，可能对阐明其相应的生物学功能具有重要意义，并且提出的方法可能在生物医学研究中得到更广泛的应用。