Brillouin microscopic imaging of ex-vivo porcine eye using VIPA-CMOS-based spectrometer

The research on non-invasive ophthalmic imaging has become a hot topic in diagnosing ophthalmic diseases, especially assessment of corneal biomechanics has been an unmet clinical need in ophthalmology for many years. The Brillouin microscopy technique based on spontaneous Brillouin scattering has emerged as a unique elastography method due to its advantages of non-contact, label-free, and high-resolution biomechanical imaging of biological tissues. Here, we developed a three-dimensional (3D) optical microscope system for ex-vivo porcine cornea Brillouin imaging. To do this, we designed and experimentally demonstrated a setup with double-stage VIPA etalons and CMOS camera that integrate to a fully parallel dispersive Brillouin spectrometer. The designed spectrometer exhibits a smaller dispersion rate to enhance the spectral sampling rate and downsizes the size of the double-stage-based system. Using the optical microscope system, we measured and mapped the Brillouin frequency shifts of the cornea and crystalline lens in ex-vivo porcine eyes at micron-scale spatial resolution, and a spectral accuracy of <50 MHz can be achieved without interpolating the spectra. This work is essential for future applications of Brillouin microscopy in clinical diagnosis and treatment of ophthalmic diseases.