Topography and refractometry of nanostructures using spatial light interference microscopy

Wang, Zhuo; Chun, Ik Su; Li, Xiuling; Ong, Zhun-Yong; Pop, Eric; Millet, Larry J.; Gillette, Martha U.; Popescu, Gabriel

doi:10.1364/ol.35.000208

Cited by 55 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For the majority of our simulations, we take the refractive indices of the compact myelin sheath, the axon and the fluid outside to be 1.44, 1.38 and 1.34 respectively (see Fig. 1a), consistent with their observed values264849. This index contrast allows guided modes of light inside the myelin sheath.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 54%

Possible existence of optical communication channels in the brain

Kumar

Boone

Tuszyński

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Given that many fundamental questions in neuroscience are still open, it seems pertinent to explore whether the brain might use other physical modalities than the ones that have been discovered so far. In particular it is well established that neurons can emit photons, which prompts the question whether these biophotons could serve as signals between neurons, in addition to the well-known electro-chemical signals. For such communication to be targeted, the photons would need to travel in waveguides. Here we show, based on detailed theoretical modeling, that myelinated axons could serve as photonic waveguides, taking into account realistic optical imperfections. We propose experiments, both in vivo and in vitro, to test our hypothesis. We discuss the implications of our results, including the question whether photons could mediate long-range quantum entanglement in the brain.

show abstract

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 54%

Possible existence of optical communication channels in the brain

Kumar

Boone

Tuszyński

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…1a), which are consistent with their typical values (41,62,63). These indexes let the myelin sheath guide the light inside itself.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Changing the refractive index both transversely and longitudinally with a s.d. of 0.02 (typical variation as expected from (41,62)), while keeping the mean the same as the one used so far, Ref. (40) observed no considerable difference in the transmission (typically less than 1 %).…”

Section: Transmission In Presence Of Other Imperfectionssupporting

confidence: 56%

Are there optical communication channels in the brain

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Due to the broadband illumination light 38 and the common-path interferometric geometry, SLIM is highly sensitive to pathlength changes, down to the subnanometer scale. 39 We implemented SLIM with a programmable scanning stage, which allows for imaging large areas of tissue, up to centimeter scale, by creating a montage of micrometer-resolution images. The number of individual images in the montage depends on the size of the biopsy and varies from several hundred to several thousand.…”

Section: Biopsy Imaging Using Slimmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[33][34][35][36] Yet, the potential of QPI for label-free pathology has not been explored. Here we employ spatial light interference microscopy (SLIM), [37][38][39] a new white light QPI method developed in our laboratory, to image the entire unstained prostate and breast biopsies and perform a side-by-side comparison with stained pathological slides. Our data demonstrate that the refractive index distribution of tissue is a valuable intrinsic marker of disease and can set the basis for a new generation of computer-assisted, label-free histopathology, to enable earlier disease detection, more accurate diagnosis, and high-sensitivity screening.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tissue refractive index as marker of disease

et al. 2011

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The gold standard in histopathology relies on manual investigation of stained tissue biopsies. A sensitive and quantitative method for in situ tissue specimen inspection is highly desirable, as it would allow early disease diagnosis and automatic screening. Here we demonstrate that quantitative phase imaging of entire unstained biopsies has the potential to fulfill this requirement. Our data indicates that the refractive index distribution of histopathology slides, which contains information about the molecular scale organization of tissue, reveals prostate tumors and breast calcifications. These optical maps report on subtle, nanoscale morphological properties of tissues and cells that cannot be recovered by common stains, including hematoxylin and eosin. We found that cancer progression significantly alters the tissue organization, as exhibited by consistently higher refractive index variance in prostate tumors versus normal regions. Furthermore, using the quantitative phase information, we obtained the spatially resolved scattering mean free path and anisotropy factor g for entire biopsies and demonstrated their direct correlation with tumor presence. In essence, our results show that the tissue refractive index reports on the nanoscale tissue architecture and, in principle, can be used as an intrinsic marker for cancer diagnosis. C 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

show abstract

Topography and refractometry of nanostructures using spatial light interference microscopy

Cited by 55 publications

References 16 publications

Possible existence of optical communication channels in the brain

Possible existence of optical communication channels in the brain

Are there optical communication channels in the brain

Tissue refractive index as marker of disease

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About