{"doi":"10.1364/optica.564920","title":"Vibrational photothermal imaging: theory, instrumentation, and applications","abstract":"Optical spectroscopic imaging is vital in biophotonics and materials science, yet achieving label-free, high-sensitivity molecular imaging remains a significant challenge. Vibrational photothermal microscopy has emerged as a high-sensitivity label-free approach. By measuring the heat generated during the nonradiative relaxation of vibrationally excited molecules, vibrational photothermal microscopy has achieved micromolar detection sensitivity. Recent advancements in mid-infrared excitation have driven rapid progress in this field by enabling submicron-resolution chemical bond imaging. This review discusses the theoretical principles, contrast mechanisms, and instrumentation strategies of mid-infrared photothermal microscopy and introduces other emerging techniques in the vibrational photothermal microscopy family. Broad applications as a versatile chemical imaging tool are summarized.","journal":"Optica","year":2025,"id":519983,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":6,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9498,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1389586,"name":"Pin‐Tian Lyu","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1330569,"name":"Rylie Bolarinho","orcid":"0000-0002-8620-3583","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":313677,"name":"Yifan Zhu","orcid":"0000-0003-4421-1486","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":817222,"name":"Xiaowei Ge","orcid":"0000-0001-8938-9304","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":489253,"name":"Hongli Ni","orcid":"0000-0003-4323-1493","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":266496,"name":"Ji‐Xin Cheng","orcid":"0000-0002-5607-6683","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":629770,"name":"Jiaze Yin","orcid":"0000-0001-6080-3073","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":126,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:49:23.618703Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}