Abstract

We present simulation of second harmonic microscopy images of Achilles Tendon and compare them with experimental images acquired by Légaré et al.[1]. We show that images acquired in forward direction can only be explained if the parallels collagen fibrils forming the tendon have random up/down direction. We also show that backward second harmonic generation is more sensitive than forward generation to small changes in fibrils position, explaining the granulated aspect of the epi-collected images when backreflection of forward emitted light is negligible.

© 2010 Optical Society of America