Optical tools towards the improvement of optogenetic stimulation

Optogenetics is a powerful addition to the spectrum of techniques available in neuroscience to investigate neurophysiology and unravel how neural circuit structure is related to circuit function. This technique relies on introducing lightsensitive proteins or molecules as actuators to transduce an optical signal into a physiological perturbation...

Physical and Computational Approaches to Aberration Correction In Fluorescence Microscopy

The goal of this thesis, called Physical and Computational Approaches to Aberration Correction In Fluorescence Microscopy, concerns itself with the development of new techniques to control adaptive fluorescence microscopes, so that they can adapt and image with increased resolution, contrast and speed inside complex three-dimensional biological...

Hybrid adaptive and computational light-sheet fluorescence microscopy

The light-sheet fluorescence microscopy is an excellent tool for the investigation of large three dimensional microscopy samples at the cellular level, however, the ability to resolve features is strongly affected by the presence of scattering and aberrations. These effects are two fold in light-sheet microscopy, as the illumination path...

Light-sheet optimization for microscopy

Aberrations, scattering and absorption degrade the performance light-sheet fluorescence microscopes (LSFM). An adaptive optics system to correct for these artefacts and to optimize the light-sheet illumination is presented. This system allows a higher axial resolution to be recovered over the field-of-view of the detection objective. It is...

Cathodoluminescence Microscopy of Nanostructures on Transparent Substrates

Cathodoluminescence (CL), the excitation of light by an electron beam, has gained attention as an analysis tool for investigating the optical response of a structure, at a resolution that approaches that in electron microscopy, in the nanometer range. However, the application possibilities are limited because the use of transparent substrates,...

High NA diffractive array illuminators and application in a multi-spot scanning microscope

Array illuminators generating spots with high NA at high efficiency are presented. They are designed via application of high-NA scalar optics methods, and implemented as periodic binary phase structures. These array illuminators are used in a multi-spot scanning microscope for scanning large sample areas with a relatively high resolution.

Structured illumination microscopy using extraordinary transmission through sub-wavelength hole-arrays

Towards terahertz microscopy

Terahertz (=1012 Hz) radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation that is at this moment used rarely for imaging purposes. However, there are indeed reasons to assume that imaging with terahertz radiation could be very useful. First, many materials, such as paper, plastics and clothing are transparent for terahertz radiation, while they...

Low-energy electron beams through ultra-thin foils, applications for electron microscopy

This thesis has discussed two electron microscopy applications that make use of ultra-thin foils: the tunnel junction emitter and the low-energy foil corrector. Both applications have in common that the electron beam is sent through the thin foil at low energy. Part of the electrons will scatter in the foil, thus causing a reduction of the...

Shot-noise limited detection sensitivity in multiplex CARS microscopy

In multiplex CARS microscopy the generated anti-Stokes signal is generated and detected simultaneously over a significant part of the vibrational spectrum. The signal-to-noise ratio of the thus detected spectra is limited only by shot-noise. This principle is demonstrated using a dilution series of 2-propanol in water. It is derived...