Bio Photonics Research

  Hearing impairment is generally caused by disorders within the cochlea of the inner ear. Effective treatment of hearing loss requires a clear view of the cochlea’s internal structures, which are difficult to assess noninvasively. To perform nondestructive detection of the cochlea’s internal structure with sufficient spatial resolution, researchers at Waseda University, working with colleagues at Kobe University and Osaka University, developed a terahertz imaging technique to visualize the cochlea through near-field imaging and 3D reconstruction. The imaging technique provided clear structural information at varying depths, enabling the researchers to visualize intricate cochlear features. The 3D reconstruction process yielded high-quality spatial representations of the cochlea, enhancing the researchers’ understanding of the cochlea’s internal architecture. The terahertz imaging technique could be integrated into miniaturized devices, enabling noninvasive, in vivo imaging for c...

SANTA PAULA, Calif. — Abrisa Technologies, a provider of custom glass optics and thin film coatings and a subsidiary of HEF Photonics, has acquired Agama Glass Technologies, a manufacturer of etched anti-glare glass and technical glass processing. The acquisition, Abrisa said, expands its manufacturing footprint and adds a vertically integrated solution for chemically etched anti-glare display glass. According to Abrisa, Clarksburg, West Virginia-based Agama operates North America’s only high-volume technical glass etching facility. Agama's flagship product, AgamaEtch, is used in high-performance display and optics applications. The company's 85,000 sq ft facility also offers precision glass fabrication, chemical strengthening, and silk-screen printing, serving markets such as avionics, defense, medical, industrial, and touchscreen displays. Combined with Abrisa Technologies’ and HEF Photonics’ thin-film coating and surface engineering capabilities, Agama's offerings wi...

Photon Force is an award-winning SME building on over a decade of successful research experience. Our mission is to provide innovative single-photon sensitive detector technologies to accelerate industry and research. Broad applications in the biomedical and quantum technology fields include significantly improved diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). Photon Force is a leading commercial supplier of CMOS time-resolved SPAD arrays, offering the world's highest time-resolved single-photon counting throughput, and is developing several next generation SPAD-based technologies and processing capabilities. In TCSPC mode, within each pixel, dedicated circuitry registers a time-stamp upon the detection of a single photon with 55ps accuracy. These time-stamps are histogrammed in the camera hardware and read out via USB-C or PCIe at rates that allow up to 500 million photons to be time-stamped per second. In photon counting mode, the cu...

Compared to bulk optical tweezers, integrated optical tweezers are compact and low-cost, making them practical for most research organizations. But so far, integrated optical tweezers have been of limited use in biological research, due to the very small standoff distances they provide. To increase the standoff distance, researchers at MIT used an integrated optical phased array (OPA). The silicon photonics-based OPA enables trapping and tweezing of biological particles at 5 mm above the chip surface, enlarging the standoff distance by more than two orders of magnitude. The OPA tweezers can capture and manipulate biological particles from a safe distance while the particles remain inside a sterile cover slip. Both the chip and the particles are protected from contamination. The OPA optical tweezers offer the advantages of integrated tweezers along with much of the functionality of bulk optical systems. Someday, the OPA tweezers could be used to study DNA, classify cells, investigate...

The first practical approach to creating photonic time crystals at optical frequencies, developed by an international research team, could lay the groundwork for faster, more compact lasers , sensors, and other optical devices. The team comprising scientists from Aalto University, the University of Eastern Finland, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and Harbin Engineering University previously demonstrated photonic time crystals at microwave frequencies. However, designing the crystals at optical frequencies has remained a challenge for the researchers, due to the need for a fast, large-amplitude variation of properties in the material platforms for these crystals. Unlike traditional crystals, which have spatially repeating structures, photonic time crystals are uniform in space, but exhibit a periodic oscillation in time. This temporal oscillation creates a momentum bandgap in the crystal, an unusual state during which light pauses inside the crystal while its intensity grows exponen...

RALEIGH, N.C., — Uviquity, a deep tech startup developing next-generation photonic disinfection technologies, has emerged from stealth with $6.6 million in seed funding. The funding will support the company's R&D efforts, accelerating the productization of its core technology. The company is developing solid-state far-UV-C (200-230-nm) semiconductor light sources designed to deliver safe, continuous, and chemical-free disinfection for air, food, and water applications. Unlike conventional UV-C solutions, far-UVC light has been proven safe for continuous exposure to human skin and eyes while rapidly inactivating all known pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, and mold spores. Until now, far-UV-C systems have relied on bulky gas-discharge lamps with limited scalability and reliability, according to the company. Uviquity's proprietary photonic integrated circuit couples blue laser light into frequency-doubling waveguides, enabling a compact, energy-efficient, and du...

Eye-tracking technology is critical in virtual and augmented reality headsets, scientific research, medical and behavioral sciences, automotive driving assistance, and industrial engineering. Tracking the movements of the human eye with high accuracy, however, is a daunting challenge. Researchers at the University of Arizona Wyant College of Optical Sciences have demonstrated an approach that integrates deflectometry with advanced computation. The method, the researchers said, has the potential to significantly improve state-of-the-art eye-tracking technology. “Current eye-tracking methods can only capture directional information of the eyeball from a few sparse surface points, about a dozen at most,” said Florian Willomitzer, associate professor of optical sciences and principal investigator of the study. “With our deflectometry-based method, we can use the information from more than 40,000 surface points, theoretically even millions, all extracted from only one single, instantaneou...

The term biophotonics encompasses the detection, emission, and absorption of photons. The creation, modification, and reflection of light can also be the basis of biophotonic methods. Common examples of biophotonics studies include fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), biofluorescence, and bioluminescence. FRET FRET, also known as Foerster Resonance Energy Transfer, is based on transfer of energy from one fluorophore to another. The emission energy of the first fluorophore, the donor, provides excitation energy for the second fluorophore, the acceptor. Cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) and yellow fluorescent protein (YFP), are two fluorophores that are commonly used together for FRET. These fluorophores can be engineered into a host cell to study molecular interactions within the cell. FRET can be used to determine the conformation of proteins or detect protein interactions. It is also a popular method for studying enzyme kinetics. FRET has wide applications in preclinical drug ...

Yuehan Liu is a fifth-year doctoral candidate affiliated with the Biophotonics Imaging Technology Lab (BIT) advised by Xingde Li . She recently gave a talk at SPIE Photonics West BiOSentitled "Two-photon fiberscope with a proactive optoelectrical commutator for rotational resistance-free neuroimaging in freely-behaving rodents." Her talk focused on the recent progress of non-invasive imaging technologies that could revolutionize the study of brain function and diseases. Biophotonics is an interdisciplinary field that applies Photonics — the branch of physics dealing with the creation, transmission, manipulation and reception of light — to biology-related studies, particularly in neuroscience. At the core of biophotonics is the use of photons and optical imaging techniques to study cells and tissue. Unlike traditional; biopsy, which requires the extraction of sample cells for examination, biophotonics allows biological cells to be examined while keeping their integrity so that...

  1. Introduction Gas sensing is a critical technique in environmental monitoring, industrial safety, and medical diagnostics. Traditional gas detection methods often face limitations in response time, accuracy, and adaptability to varying environmental conditions. This study presents a novel gas sensing system based on quartz crystal tuning fork (QCTF) enhanced spectroscopy, specifically applied to methane (CH₄) detection. By incorporating innovative self-calibration algorithms and a near-infrared diode laser system, the research aims to overcome the common challenges of slow calibration and environmental sensitivity. 2. Quartz Crystal Tuning Fork (QCTF) Enhanced Spectroscopy QCTF is utilized in this study as a resonant detector to significantly boost gas sensing sensitivity and specificity. The tuning fork's resonant frequency and quality factor are leveraged for signal enhancement and environmental adaptability. The integration of these parameters into the detection algorithm...