Characterization of a multicore fiber image guide for nonlinear endoscopic imaging using two-photon fluorescence and second-harmonic generation

Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) has the capacity to record second-harmonic generation (SHG) and endogenous two-photon excitation fluorescence (2PEF) signals emitted from biological tissues. The development of fiber-based miniaturized endomicroscopes delivering pulses in the femtosecond range will allow the transfer of MPM to clinical endoscopy. We present real-time SHG and 2PEF ex vivo images using an endomicroscope, which totally complies with clinical endoscopy regulations. This system is based on the proximal scanning of a commercial multicore image guide (IG). For understanding the inhomogeneities of the recorded images, we quantitatively characterize the IG at the single-core level during nonlinear excitation. The obtained results suggest that these inhomogeneities originate from the variable core geometries that, therefore, exhibit variable nonlinear and dispersive properties. Finally, we propose a method based on modulation of dispersion precompensation to address the image inhomogeneity issue and, as a proof of concept, we demonstrate its capability to improve the nonlinear image quality.