18 Sep 14
At DTU Fotonik, researchers have developed an optical fibre-based light source covering a wavelength range previously unreachable using a fibre laser.
In developing a new supercontinuum light source, the researchers have set a world record: The light source covers three octaves of a wavelength area of the infra-red spectrum—an area referred to by researchers as the ‘molecular fingerprint region’—which has not been reached with a fibre laser before.
The high-intensity light source covers a wavelength spanning from 1.4 to 13.3 microns, and because the light is formed in a special and newly developed glass fibre (a soft-glass fibre), it can be directed and focused on a sample.
The light source is ideal for use in a number of areas of spectroscopy which involve illuminating a sample and measuring how much light is absorbed by the sample—and in particular at which wavelengths absorption occurs. In this way, you can see the substances contained in a biological sample. The light source can thus be used for quick and precise early cancer diagnostics—and for fast, accurate and robust online food quality control.
The research findings have just been published in an article in the recognized scientific journal Nature Photonics.
The research behind the development has, for example, been conducted under the ‘Light and Food’ project, which is funded by the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation, now the Innovation Foundation, and in which Aarhus University, the University of Copenhagen, NKT Photonics and the food analysis company Foss Analytical participate together with DTU Fotonik.
The actual soft-glass fibre which provides the light source with its unique properties has been developed in a major EU project, 'MINERVA', which involves a number of prominent academic and industrial partners in Europe.
