Extended field-of-view and increased-signal 3D holographic illumination with time-division multiplexing

Phase spatial light modulators (SLMs) are widely used for generating multifocal three-dimensional (3D) illumination patterns, but these are limited to a field of view constrained by the pixel count or size of the SLM. Further, with two-photon SLM-based excitation, increasing the number of focal spots penalizes the total signal linearly-requiring more laser power than is available or can be tolerated by the sample. Here we analyze and demonstrate a method of using galvanometer mirrors to time-sequentially reposition multiple 3D holograms, both extending the field of view and increasing the total time-averaged two-photon signal. We apply our approach to 3D two-photon in vivo neuronal calcium imaging. (C)2015 Optical Society of America