Wavefront shaping using integrated photonics for deep tissue imaging

Biomedical imaging is a cornerstone of scientific discovery, which provides the basis for the development of novel therapies and pharmacological treatments. However, our understanding of the complex cellular processes inside living systems remains fragmented, since structural and/or functional imaging of complete, intact living objects remains challenging with microscopy techniques today. Current approaches especially fail to sustain this sub-cellular resolution in-vivo at elevated depths due to the strong scattering of light in tissue, which poses a major limitation for imaging large volumes at high resolution. Recent advances in bio-photonics and imaging techniques promise to deliver deeper penetration at high resolution by actively compensating for tissue scattering. However, the adoption of these tools in biomedical applications has been lagging, in part because key technologies, such as the available spatial light modulators, show limited performance. This PhD project will address the above challenges by developing powerful photonic integrated circuit (PIC) chips, which can project custom light patterns at high speed. This work builds on existing approaches at imec around optical beam forming. The new PICs provide the basis for advancing in-vivo two-photon microscopy by introducing high speed scattering compensation. The PhD project will be embedded in an international collaboration with specialists in scattering compensation microscopy. Subsequent co-design of the PICs and the microscope around the chip will allow better system-level tradeoffs. The technique will be initially validated on phantoms, and finally on in-vitro and in-vivo tissue in collaboration with biology-experts.