Microscopie par diffusion cohérente Raman CARS : application à l'imagerie des milieux biologiques

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy (CARS) is a new approach for chemical imaging of molecular systems, with high sensitivity, high spatial resolution, and three dimensional sectioning capability, without using fluorophores that are prone to photobleaching. This technique permits to map selectively molecular species, by using vibrational properties of their chemical bounds. CARS is described by a four wave-mixing process, where the signal intensity depends nonlinearly on the incident intensities, and generated in a direction determined by the phase-matching condition. The approach of this work was to realize a CARS microscope, allowing biological systems imaging without any labelling or staining. Studies were undertaken showing the potentialities of this tool, as well as its characterization in the spatial and spectral domain.