Application of Tunable Solid-State Lasers to Biophotonics Information Sensing

Abstract

Recent interest in biomedical imagings using lasers has been spurred by the need of nonionizing medical imaging diagnostics. Tunable solid-state lasers are well suited for spectroscopic measurements and imaging of biological tissues, which are expected to provide functional information of the samples. This paper summarizes our recent development of a laser-diode pumped, single-frequency CW Cr: LiSAF laser which has been demonstrated to be tunable over a wide range of 150 nm near the wavelength of 875 nm. By reviewing our recent progresss of optical imaging and computed tomography of tissues and tissue-like phantoms, we show some of the potential applications of the tunable solid-state lasers.