Open Access
23 April 2020 Biomedical optics applications of advanced lasers and nonlinear optics
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Abstract

Significance: 2019 SPIE Photonics West conference hosted over 5000 presentations. Some important presentations in the Industrial Laser, Laser Source and Application (LASE) and Optoelectronics, Photonic Materials and Devices (OPTO) sections of the SPIE Photonics West conference have a risk of being overlooked by the biomedical community despite their implications for the field of biophotonics. We review some recent advances in the area of development coherent radiation sources in the infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), and terahertz (THz) regimes.

Aim: Recent advances in coherent radiation sources in the IR, deep UV, and THz regimes were outlined, and the importance of each presentation to one or more promising biomedical applications was assessed.

Approach: Presentations and proceedings from the LASE and OPTO sections were reviewed for inclusion. Emphasis was placed on talks from the Nonlinear Frequency Generation and Conversion: Materials and Devices XVIII conference, and the Terahertz, RF, Millimeter, and Submillimeter-Wave Technology and Applications XII conference. Conference sections that directly focused on biomedical applications were excluded.

Results: Enhanced IR supercontinuum generation with compact supercontinuum sources may allow for real-time biomarker detection and create new opportunities for imaging tissues using the third biological window (1600 to 1850 nm). Efficient methods to generate deep UV (200 to 260 nm) radiation allow for the study of biologically important molecules through techniques such as resonance Raman spectroscopy while avoiding fluorescence overlap. Likewise, novel and improved THz generation methods seek to bridge the “THz gap” that has previously limited biomedical applications.

Conclusions: Advances in coherent radiation sources in the IR, UV, and THz regimes have created new opportunities for biomedical optics research.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.
Christopher B. Marble and Vladislav V. Yakovlev "Biomedical optics applications of advanced lasers and nonlinear optics," Journal of Biomedical Optics 25(4), 040902 (23 April 2020). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.25.4.040902
Received: 3 December 2019; Accepted: 6 April 2020; Published: 23 April 2020
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CITATIONS
Cited by 2 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Biomedical optics

Terahertz radiation

Ultraviolet radiation

Spectroscopy

Laser applications

Nonlinear optics

Crystals

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