Biophotonic permeation kinetics measured easily with award-winning ARP terahertz scanning reflectometer (VIDEO)

June 9, 2011

Baltimore, MD--At OSA's CLEO 2011, Applied Research & Photonics (ARP) showed how easy it is to measure permeation kinetics with their CLEO/LFW Innovation Award-winning terahertz scanning reflectometer.

Gail Overton

Baltimore, MD--At the 2011 OSA Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics (CLEO), Applied Research & Photonics (ARP; Harrisburg, PA) CEO and CTO Anis Rahman showed how effective it is to measure biophotonic permeation kinetics using their 2011 CLEO/Laser Focus World Innovation Award-winning terahertz scanning reflectometer.

This ARP photonics test & measurement instrument is the only one that provides measurement of both the concentration gradient of a permeating ingredient across the thickness of a substrate (such as skin tissue) and the rate (kinetics) of the permeation. Using the difference frequency method, a CW terahertz signal is generated and directed to a sample by an off-axis parabolic reflector. A motion controller scans the beam through the sample thickness, and a detector records the reflected signal both with and without the permeating ingredient in real time while the ingredient is diffusing. Computations using the reflection data deliver both concentration of the permeation ingredient and its diffusion rate over time.

In addition to measuring diffusion coefficients for biological tissues and organisms in the life sciences, the terahertz reflectometer can also be used for substrate measurement in the optics and semiconductor industry, without the need for fluorescence or radioisotope labeling (label-free measurement). For more information, contact ARP at http://arphotonics.net.

SOURCE: Laser Focus World; www.laserfocusworld.com

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.