ABSTRACT
While vibrational spectroscopy is an ideal candidate for optical contrast with chemical speci city and o—ers a label-free alternative to –uorescent labeling and dye staining (Turrell et al., 1996; Gremlich and Yan, 2001), microscopies based on infrared (IR) absorption and spontaneous Raman scattering are limited by low spatial resolution and intrinsically feeble signals, respectively. As discussed in previous chapters, coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) can overcome these limitations by providing coherent signal ampli cation of the weak spontaneous Raman scattering signals by orders of magnitude.
