Optical Imaging

Facilities and Equipment

A G.E. eXplore Optix is located in the IVISR of the Moores Cancer Center. It consists of a light-tight box that houses the excitation lasers, detector (photomultiplier tube with 250ps temporal resolution), filters, and appropriate optics. Time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) is used to measure the temporal dispersion of fluorescent photons following excitation of a fluorophore by a picosecond laser pulse operating at 80 MHz. This temporal dispersion curve, known as the fluorescent temporal point spread function (TPSF), can be analyzed to derive the in vivo fluorophore depth, concentration, and lifetime or simply temporally integrated to provide the continuous wave (CW) fluorescent intensity. The imaging point (1mm in size) is raster-scanned over the entire region-of-interest. Laser power, count time per raster point (0.1-1s), translation increment (0.5-3mm) and region-of-interest (up to 8.4x20cm) are selected by the operator to achieve optimal temporal and spatial resolution and SNR over the desired region.