Background-free Brillouin fibre probe for remote mapping of micromechanics

We present a novel Brillouin fibre probe to achieve background-free remote mapping of micromechanical properties in tissue-mimicking hydrogel-water phantom. This Brillouin imaging system is designed using a low loss hollow core optical fibre and miniature objective for efficient light delivery and scattered light collection. The system efficiency and focusing power is comparable to free space Brillouin optical systems. This demonstration paves the way towards a wide range of biomedical and bioengineering applications where non-contact, label-free and damage-free mechanical imaging is required to retrieve in situ and in vivo microscopic viscoelastic properties of tissues and biomaterials.