Fig. 1: Optical apparatus for analyzing cell membrane interactions with and responses to shock.

a Sample assembly. Cells are placed in a thin liquid layer that contains fluorescent dyes. A cylindrically focused pump pulse (red beam) irradiates a line in the plane of the liquid layer. Two counter-propagating shock waves are launched and remain confined in the plane. b Optical setup. A cylindrical-lens configuration shapes the pump pulse into a line focus. Interferometric imaging is performed using a Mach-Zehnder configuration and a variably-delayed probe pulse (blue beams). The probe beam is split into two arms and recombined using two beam splitters (BS). The sample plane is imaged onto a charge-coupled device (CCD) using a two-lens telescope. A continuous-wave (CW) argon-ion-laser beam (azure) is delivered to the sample plane through a dichroic mirror (DM) to induce dye fluorescence (green) which is imaged onto another CCD. For each laser and fluorescence, λ is the wavelength. τ is the pulse duration of each laser. The focal length of lens is indicated such as f300 where 300 is measured in millimeters.