3D microphotonic probe for high resolution deep tissue imaging.

Ultra-compact miniaturized optical components for microendoscopic tools and miniaturized microscopes are required for minimally invasive imaging. Current microendoscopic technologies used for deep tissue imaging procedures are limited to a large diameter and/or low resolution due to manufacturing restrictions. We demonstrate a platform for miniaturization of an optical imaging system for microendoscopic applications with a resolution of 1 mu m. We designed our probe using cascaded micro-lenses and waveguides (lensguide) to achieve a probe as small as 100 mu m x 100 mu m with a field of view of 60 mu m in diameter. We demonstrate wide-field microscopy based on our polymeric probe fabricated using photolithography and a two-photon polymerization process. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement