Table 1.

Representative list of laser sources that have been used for multi-photon microscopy.

Main Source	Additional Elements	Wavelength coverage (nm)	Peak power (kW)	Average power (W)	Pulse width (fs)	Rate (MHz)	Reference
Ti:Sapphire		680–1080	~300	~3	~100	80	[43, 44]
		~800	~300	0.3	~12	75	[45]
	OPO & SHG	550–2250	~8–80	0.2–2	<~300	80	[46, 47]
Yb systems		~1050	~150	3	<250	76	[48]
Nd systems		~1050	~40	>0.4	150–200	70–150	[49]
	PCF & SHG	546–687	9.4	0.053	~100	120	[50, 51]
	OPO	1450–1630	2.4	0.13	450	120	[52]
Diode laser	Amplifier	980		0.035	3500	10	[53]
		783	0.105	0.273	5200	500	[54]
	SHG & amplifier	770	1.1	0.005	5000	1	[55]
	SHG & PCF & amplifier	1030	1.1	0.1	7000	10	[56]
		920	0.25	0.25	1000	50	[56]
Cr:LiSAF		860	~3.25	0.044	90	150	[42]
			~3.75	0.03	100–200	80	[57]
Cr:LiCAF		800	~25.7	0.18	70	100	*

OPO: Optical parametric oscillators, PCF: Photonic crystal fiber, SHG: Second harmonic generation.

^*Denotes the Cr:LiCAF laser that will be described in this work