Brillouin spectroscopy for accurate assessment of morphological and mechanical characteristics in micro-structured samples

Abstract

Brillouin spectroscopy has recently attracted attention as a powerful tool for the characterisation of the mechanical properties of heterogeneous materials, particularly in the biological and biomedical domains. This study investigates the procedure to use Brillouin data to provide relevant morphological parameters of micro-structured samples. When acquiring Brillouin spectra at the interface between two regions of the sample, the spectrum shows signatures of both regions. This feature can be used to precisely identify the position of the interfaces by analysing the evolution of the fitting parameters of the Brillouin spectra acquired by performing a linear scan across the interface. This concept has been demonstrated measuring the thickness of adherent HEK 293T cells. The results are validated using fluorescence microscopy, showing an excellent agreement. The present analysis showcases the wealth of information present in the Brillouin spectrum and the potentiality of Brillouin spectroscopy not only for mechanical characterization but also for label-free, high-resolution imaging of sample morphology. The study introduces the possibility of correlating mechanical properties and shape of biological samples using a single technique.