| abstract |
An installation is provided for multi-dimensional non-linear imaging of a material comprising intrinsic chromophores, using laser scanning. This installation comprises i) at least one source (115) of time stamp pulses of synchronized photons, ii) means (12-14) for locally focusing the pulses on a material to cause its intrinsic chromophores to absorb groups of at least two synchronized photons to produce response photons, iii) means (22, 40, 53) for directing the response photons to at leat one collecting zone, iv) means (30-34) for collecting the response photons in the collecting zone(s) whatever their energy, v) processing means for converting the collected photons into data at least representative of their number and storing them in correspondence with at least the time stamp pulses that cause the material to produce the response photons, vi) means for scanning (11, 20) the pulses through a chosen area of the material, and vii) means for delivering from said data stored an image representative of said material chosen area, with a sub-millimeter resolution, and in function of the respective time stamp pulses of data. |