Volumetric Imaging From Raman Perspective: Review and Prospect

Volumetric imaging, which supports quantitative and comprehensive assessment of a 3D sample from an entire volume, has attracted tremendous attention in biomedical research. Fluorescence imaging techniques, such as optical sectioning and light sheet microscopy, enable to reconstruct the 3D distribution of chemicals within a sample. However, current methods rely on exogenous labels, from which considerable perturbation may be introduced in living systems. Raman imaging offers a feasible solution to visualize components in biological samples in a label-free manner. Besides, the integration of Raman microscopy with 3D approaches will benefit the research of biomedical samples on novel devices, which is dominated by the strongly enhanced spatial resolution, imaging speed, and overall field of view as well as complemented more details of samples. In this overview, recent achievements in 3D visualization of biological samples from the Raman perspective, are explored including scanning mechanism, light sheet, tomography strategy, compressive sensing, holography, and tissue clearing. Importantly, these platforms are compatible with biomedical research, thus allowing the imaging of chemical constituents and the distribution of samples in a whole volume. As a unique volumetric imaging tool for biological discovery, these methods may provide a strategy to accelerate new discoveries across diverse fields of research.