In our 50th episode of Photonics Hot List:
From LIBS to Raman, spectroscopy techniques are finding all sorts of applications. And now you can add gemstones and minerals to the mix. Researchers in Egypt are using a variety of such imaging approaches to look beyond the beautiful crystalline facades.
Optical resolution photoacoustic microscopy is already helping researchers study and better understand diseases such as cancer and strokes. But it has some drawbacks. However, a team is China has developed a new method to overcome them.
A team based in the U.K. has discovered that turning invisible mid-IR photons into visible ones may allow them to detect in the mid-IR and potentially apply spectroscopy at the single-molecule level. This exciting breakthrough is a feat that was previously impossible.
