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Peer-reviewedCC BY-NC-NDChemical & biomedical imaging

Background-Suppressed Infrared Photothermal Microscopy at Low Temperature.

  • Thao N Pham1
  • Jiaze Yin2
  • Yuhao Yuan2,3
  • Dingcheng Sun1
  • Bethany Weinberg4
  • Hongli Ni2
  • Ji-Xin Cheng1,2,4,3
4 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States.
  2. 2Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States.
  3. 3Photonics Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States.
  4. 4Graduate Program of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States.
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Abstract

The short-wave infrared region provides reduced scattering and improved penetration depth compared to visible and near-infrared wavelengths. However, strong water absorption across this spectral window generates background signals that limit the contrast and obscure weak biomolecular features. To address this challenge, we implement a low-temperature approach that exploits the temperature dependence of the water photothermal response to suppress background while preserving lipid-derived signals in photothermal microscopy. Sample cooling during imaging enhanced the signal-to-background ratio (S/B) by up to 5.5-fold in cellular imaging and improved the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of weak lipid features by up to 1.6-fold at greater tissue depths, enabling reliable volumetric imaging in complex biological systems. We further show that a low-temperature approach is also applicable to mid-infrared photothermal microscopy, thus providing an effective means to enhance the photothermal contrast of aqueous specimens.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{pham2026backgroundsuppressed,
  title = {{Background-Suppressed Infrared Photothermal Microscopy at Low Temperature.}},
  author = {Thao N Pham and Jiaze Yin and Yuhao Yuan and Dingcheng Sun and Bethany Weinberg and Hongli Ni and Ji-Xin Cheng},
  journal = {Chemical \& biomedical imaging},
  year = {2026},
  month = jun,
  doi = {10.1021/cbmi.6c00068},
  url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42953291},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Background-Suppressed Infrared Photothermal Microscopy at Low Temperature.
AU  - Thao N Pham
AU  - Jiaze Yin
AU  - Yuhao Yuan
AU  - Dingcheng Sun
AU  - Bethany Weinberg
AU  - Hongli Ni
AU  - Ji-Xin Cheng
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/02
JO  - Chemical & biomedical imaging
DO  - 10.1021/cbmi.6c00068
UR  - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42953291
AB  - The short-wave infrared region provides reduced scattering and improved penetration depth compared to visible and near-infrared wavelengths. However, strong water absorption across this spectral window generates background signals that limit the contrast and obscure weak biomolecular features. To address this challenge, we implement a low-temperature approach that exploits the temperature dependence of the water photothermal response to suppress background while preserving lipid-derived signals in photothermal microscopy. Sample cooling during imaging enhanced the signal-to-background ratio (S/B) by up to 5.5-fold in cellular imaging and improved the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of weak lipid features by up to 1.6-fold at greater tissue depths, enabling reliable volumetric imaging in complex biological systems. We further show that a low-temperature approach is also applicable to mid-infrared photothermal microscopy, thus providing an effective means to enhance the photothermal contrast of aqueous specimens.
SN  - 2832-3637
ER  -