[21p-234A-1~16] 3.4 Biomedical optics

[21p-234A-15] Structure Analysis of Single Microtubules by Polarization-Resolved SHG Microscopy

〇Junichi Kaneshiro¹, Taro Ichimura^1,2, Tomonobu Watanabe¹ (1.RIKEN BDR, 2.Osaka Univ. OTRI)

Keywords:second harmonic generation, polarization, microtubule

We succeeded to visualize a single microtubule in liquid and analyzed its structure by means of polarization-resolved second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy. In this study, we improved S/N ratio of SHG intensity measurement by suppressing a noise source specific to SHG microscopy with high peak intensity pulsed laser. We also developed a novel polarization converter composed of a pair of electro-optic modulators for fast and accurate measurement of SHG polarization dependence of biopolymers in liquid. The developed equipment enabled us to perform detection of polarization dependence at each scanning point. Significance of polarization dependence was revealed between two different states of microtubules.