Chemically sensitive bioimaging with coherent Raman scattering

Raman scattering provides an intrinsic fingerprint of chemical composition. Spontaneous Raman spectroscopy has been used for many decades to interrogate biological materials and systems. In spite of its valuable information content, Raman imaging is rarely used compared with modalities such as fluorescence microscopy because of its relatively slow signal acquisition. Coherent Raman imaging technologies have evolved over the past fifteen years to now capture rich chemical information with improved acquisition speeds. As a result, coherent Raman imaging methods are now poised to begin emerging as widely used tools for obtaining functional information in a label-free manner from biological systems. We briefly review the development and application of these methods.