A Prospective for New Mid‐Infrared Medical Endoscopy Using Chalcogenide Glasses

Abstract

That chalcogenide glasses potentially provide a solution for mid‐infrared medical endoscopy is discussed in detail for the first time. It is shown that chalcogenide glass fiber optics could underpin new mid‐infrared medical endoscopic systems for real‐time molecular sensing, imaging, and analysis of tissue and for fiber laser surgery at new mid‐infrared wavelengths. Moreover, chalcogenide glass fiber optic and waveguide devices and systems could provide the key to new mid‐infrared communications for molecular sensing to inform decision‐taking in other sectors as diverse as manufacturing, energy, the environment, and security. The development and deployment of chalcogenide glasses for mid‐infrared photonics over the next decade or so could mirror the complexity and versatility of silica fiber optics developed in the 20th century for near‐infrared photonics. These ideas are developed in this article and the current status of chalcogenide glass photonics is briefly surveyed.

Short range order in Ge–As–Se glasses

“…Chalcogenide glass optical fibers are employed in numerous devices, for example in IR optical fiber lasers and amplifiers [5,6], Raman lasers [7,8] or fiber-based chemical and biomedical sensor devices [9][10][11][12]. Several other applications were considered, such as medical endoscopy [13], environmental metrology [14] or spatial interferometry. Single mode fibers, operating in the 4-20 μm range were proposed for space research in the frame of the Darwin mission [15].…”

Toward Mid-Infrared, Subdiffraction, Spectral-Mapping of Human Cells and Tissue: SNIM (Scanning Near-Field Infrared Microscopy) Tip Fabrication

“…They have low phonon energy, transparency within the wavelength range 0.6-25 m [13,14] and are robust enough for development as MIR fiber-optics' and SNIM tips. For instance, we have recently reported ultra-low (83 dB/km [15]) loss GeAsSe based optical fibers, exhibiting loss of<10 dB/m across 1-12 m, which encompasses the region of interest for SNIM of human cells and tissue [11,12].…”

“…Our interest is to develop SNΙM of human cells and tissue, with prospective use in disease diagnosis [12]. Thus it would be potentially possible to study exfoliated cells where disease is present and potentially to monitor the response of diseased cells to drug treatment.…”

Mid-infrared integrated optics: versatile hot embossing of mid-infrared glasses for on-chip planar waveguides for molecular sensing

“…1 Small footprint biomedical, and chemical, mid-IR sensors, based on evanescent field sensing of molecular species, are attractive for low-cost, widely accessible, health, environmental, and security monitoring. This demands miniaturization and integration of mid-IR photonic components.…”