IR laser/OPO systems for biomedical and chemical sensing

摘要

The number of laser based biomedical and chemical sensing applications continues to increase. Development and exploitation of many of these applications is limited by the lack of practical laboratory based sources of the required laser radiation. This is especially true for work requiring tunable mid-IR radiation in the 3 to 12μm region, where many water, protein, biomolecule, and inorganic chemical absorption features are located. Research on some of the most interesting primary absorption bands has been limited to studies using free electron lasers (FEL's). Since there are only a few such installations available worldwide and time on these systems is rationed and scheduled months in advance, only a limited number of experiments can be done. Development of laboratory scale laser optical parametric oscillator (OPO) systems will facilitate more extensive research activity and accelerate progress. Applications include: vibrational spectroscopic studies of water, proteins, lipids, carbonates and other biomolecules, dental, ophthalmic, and ear/nose/throat (ENT) tissue interaction research, along with biological and chemical warfare sensor development.