Review of diverse optical fibers used in biomedical research and clinical practice

Abstract

Abstract. Optical fiber technology has significantly bolstered the growth of photonics applications in basic life sciences research and in biomedical diagnosis, therapy, monitoring, and surgery. The unique operational characteristics of diverse fibers have been exploited to realize advanced biomedical functions in areas such as illumination, imaging, minimally invasive surgery, tissue ablation, biological sensing, and tissue diagnosis. This review paper provides the necessary background to understand how optical fibers function, to describe the various categories of available fibers, and to illustrate how specific fibers are used for selected biomedical photonics applications. Research articles and vendor data sheets were consulted to describe the operational characteristics of conventional and specialty multimode and single-mode solid-core fibers, double-clad fibers, hard-clad silica fibers, conventional hollow-core fibers, photonic crystal fibers, polymer optical fibers, side-emitting and side-firing fibers, middle-infrared fibers, and optical fiber bundles. Representative applications from the recent literature illustrate how various fibers can be utilized in a wide range of biomedical disciplines. In addition to helping researchers refine current experimental setups, the material in this review paper will help conceptualize and develop emerging optical fiber-based diagnostic and analysis tools.

Supercontinuum as a light source for miniaturized endoscopes

“…The heat generated may considerably raise the thermal noise of the CMOS sensor next to it. Additionally, the spatial coherence of the LED's emission would prevent its effective coupling through a single fiber [10,12]. As a viable alternative, we have demonstrated the miniaturized combination of supercontinuum with various CMOS image sensors (with die as small as 0.7mm x 0.7mm in size) [4, 15,29].…”

“…Supercontinuum, behaving like a laser in spatial coherence while possessing the spectral characteristics like white light LEDs [12,13], presents as a novel light source that can meet the above demands for endoscopy illumination, while match fittingly to the ultra-compact CMOS [14]. However, the limited field of view (FOV), attributing to the relative small numerical aperture (N.A.)…”

New Trends in Dental Biomechanics with Photonics Technologies

“…There is a lack of information in this topic of experimental biomechanics which is important to give further ideas on the bone remodeling process around implants, which has been so well studied by other methods. Recently, some review reports appeared in the literature, presenting the application of FOS in biomechanics, in particular dental biomechanics and in biomedical applications [140][141][142][143][144][145][146][147][148], clearly showing the great interest in this type of sensor in research.…”

Method for producing angled optical fiber tips in the laboratory

“…[5][6][7] Specifically for sensors, fibers have the advantage of being small in size and flexible, allowing them to reach remote locations. Their robustness and lack of requirement for electrical power at the sensing site also allow them to find uses including monitoring conditions in coal mines 2 and nuclear power stations 8 to medical blood gas sensing, 9,10 optical coherence tomography, 10 and laser tissue ablation.…”