Associate Professor, Chemistry
School of Physical Sciences

Assistant Adjunct Professor, Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic
School of Medicine

molecular mobility in biological materials, vibrational coherences, ultrafast microscopy

Group Web Page

DOE Early Career Research Award (2010)
NSF CAREER Award (2009)
Longterm EMBO Fellowship (2002)
Netherlands Science Foundation Fellowship (2001)

Harvard University (2001-2005)

The ability to see the cell's molecular machinery at work has contributed immensely to our understanding of cellular functioning. Optical microscopy in combination with selectively labeling of molecular compounds lies at very foundation of our ability to zoom into the microscopic world of cells. Thanks to the molecular sensitivity of fluorescence microscopy, the cell's dynamic pathways can now be followed with high spatial and temporal resolution.

Despite the triumph of fluorescence microscopy, there are several complications associated with the use of fluorescent labels, which can significantly compromise certain applications in cellular and systems biology.

Chemically selective imaging without fluorophores can be achieved with vibrational microscopy. The intrinsic molecular bond vibrations leave molecular specific fingerprints in the vibrational spectrum. However, the weakness of these spectroscopic features have limited the use of vibrational contrast for real-time cellular imaging. But not anymore. In recent years, new molecular imaging techniques, such as coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy, or CARS in short, have been developed for rapid vibrational imaging of living cells. In our work, we advance and apply novel imaging techniques for unveiling the molecular secrets of microscopic biological systems.

Jiri Sebek, Liat Pele, Eric O. Potma, and R. Benny Gerber, "Raman spectra of long chain hydrocarbons: Anharmonic calculations, experiment and implications for imaging of biomembranes," Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 13, 12724-12733 (2011)

Yong Wang, Xuejun Liu, Desiré Whitmore, Wendong Xing, and Eric O. Potma, "Remote multi-color excitation using femtosecond propagating surface plasmon polaritons in gold films", Opt. Express 19, 13454-13463 (2011)

Xuejun Liu, Yong Wang, and Eric O. Potma, "Surface-mediated four-wave mixing of nanostructures with counterpropagating surface plasmon polaritons", Opt. Lett. 36, 2348-2350 (2011)

Chia-Yu Lin, Jeffrey L. Suhalim, Chyong Nien, Milos D. Miljkovic, Max Diem, James Jester and Eric O. Potma, "Picosecond spectral coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) imaging with principal component analysis of meibomian glands", J. Biomed. Opt. 16 , 021104 (2011).

Carole Hayakawa, Eric O. Potma and Vasan Venugopalan, "Electric field Monte Carlo simulations of focal field distributions produced by tighly focused laser beams in tissues", Biomed. Opt. Express 2, 278-290 (2011).

Yong Wang, Chia-Yu Lin, Alexei Nikolaenko, Varun Raghunathan and Eric O. Potma, "Four-wave mixing microscopy of nanostructures", Adv. Opt. Photon. 3, 1-52 (2011).

Varun Raghunathan and Eric O. Potma, "Multiplicative and subtractive focal volume engineering in coherent Raman microscopy", J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 27, 2365-2374 (2010).

Maxwell Zimmerley, Rebecca Younger, Tiffany Valenton, David C. Oertel, Jimmie L. Ward and Eric O. Potma, "Molecular orientation in dry and hydrated cellulose fibers: a coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy study", J. Phys. Chem. B 114, 10200-10208 (2010).

Ryan S. Lim, Adelheid Kratzer, Nicholas P. Barry, Shinobu Miyazaki-Anzai, Makoto Miyazaki, William W. Mantulin, Moshe Levi, Eric O. Potma and Bruce J. Tromberg, "Multimodal CARS microscopy determination of the impact of diet on macrophage infiltration and lipid accumulation on plaque formation in ApoE-deficient mice", J. Lipid Res. 51, 1729-1737 (2010).

Mihaela Balu, Gangjun Liu, Zhongping Chen, Bruce J. Tromberg and Eric O. Potma, "Fiber delivered probe for efficient CARS imaging of tissues", Opt. Express 18, 2380-2388 (2010).

Tommaso Baldacchini,Maxwell Zimmerley, Chun-Hung Kuo, Eric O. Potma and Ruben Zadoyan, "Characterization of microstructures fabricated by two-photon polymerization using coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy", J. Phys. Chem. B 113, 12663-12668 (2009).

Maxwell Zimmerley, Chia-Yu Lin, David C. Oertel, Jennifer M. Marsh, Jimmie L. Ward and Eric O. Potma, "Quantitative detection of chemical compounds in human hair with coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering", J. Biomed. Opt. 14, 044019 (2009).

Hyunmin Kim, Tatyana Sheps, Philip G. Collins and Eric O. Potma, "Nonlinear optical imaging of individual carbon nanotubes with four-wave-mixing microscopy", Nano Lett. 9, 2991-2995 (2009).

Carole Hayakawa, Vasan Venugopalan, Vishnu Vardhan Krishnamachari and Eric O. Potma, "Amplitude and phase of tightly focused laser beams in turbid media", Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 043903 (2009).

Alexei Nikolaenko, Vishnu Vardhan Krishnamachari and Eric O. Potma, "Interferometric switching of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering signals in microscopy", Phys. Rev. A 79, 013823 (2009).

Max Zimmerley, Richard A. McClure, Bernard Choi and Eric O. Potma, "Following dimethyl sulfoxide skin optical clearing dynamics with quantitative nonlinear multimodal microscopy", Appl. Opt. 48(10), D79 - D87 (2009).

Vishnu Vardhan Krishnamachari and Eric O. Potma,"Multidimensional differential imaging with focus-engineered CARS microscopy", Vib. Spectrosc. 50, 10 - 14 (2009).

Hyunmin Kim, Dave K. Taggart, Chengxiang Xiang, Reginald M. Penner and Eric O. Potma, "Spatial control of coherent anti-Stokes emission with height-modulated gold zig-zag nanowires", Nano Lett. 8, 2373-2377 (2008).

Hyunmin Kim, Chengxiang Xiang, Aleix G. Guell, Reginald M. Penner and Eric O, Potma,"Tunable two photon-excited luminescence in single gold nanowires fabricated by lithographically patterned nanowire electrodeposition", J. Phys. Chem. C 112, 12721-12727(2008).

Vishnu Vardhan Krishnamachari and Eric O. Potma. "Detecting lateral interfaces with focus-engineered coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy ", J. Raman Spectrosc. 39, 593-598 (2008).

Vishnu Vardhan Krishnamachari and Eric O. Potma. "Imaging chemical interfaces perpendicular to the optical axis with phase-shaped coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy ", Chem. Phys. 341, 81-88 (2007).

Vishnu Vardhan Krishnamachari and Eric O. Potma. "Focus-engineered coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering: A numerical investigation", J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 24, 1138-1147 (2007).

Esben Ravn Andresen, Soren Rud Keiding and Eric O. Potma, "Picosecond anti-Stokes generation in a photonic crystal fiber for coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering interferometry", Opt. Express 14, 7246-7251 (2006).

Vishnu Vardhan Krishnamachari, Esben Ravn Andresen, Soren Rud Keiding and Eric O. Potma, "An active interferometer-stabilization scheme with linear phase control", Opt. Express 14, 5210-5215 (2006).

Petroleum Research Fund Grant Type G

NSF Instrumentation Development for Biological Research (IDBR) grant

NSF CAREER grant

DOE Early Career Research Grant

Optical Society of America

International Society for Optical Engineering

American Chemical Society

CaSTL, NSF Center for Chemical Innovation

LAMMP, NIH Biomedical Technology Resource Center

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https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=5276

Last updated
09/12/2011