Video-rate volumetric chemical imaging via mid-infrared photothermal optical diffraction tomography.

Mid-infrared photothermal optical diffraction tomography (MIP-ODT) achieves 19.2 volumes per second for label-free 3D imaging of living cells, with SNR >70 and no temporal averaging.

• Why it matters: Quantitative, chemically specific volumetric tracking of intracellular dynamics has been too slow for subsecond measurements, limiting access to 3D transport behavior.
• What they did: The approach combines high photothermal sensitivity with rapid angular scanning, and uses 3D trajectories to quantify anomalous diffusion of lipid droplets; it also sweeps wavenumber for broadband imaging.
• The result: Lipid-droplet transport in living cells shows heterogeneous behaviors linked to anomalous diffusion that are obscured in 2D, and broadband multi-wavenumber volumetric chemical imaging spans 300 cm⁻¹ within 1 s.

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