Partial-wave microscopic spectroscopy detects subwavelength refractive index fluctuations: An application to cancer diagnosis

Hariharan Subramanian, Prabhakar Pradhan, Yang Liu, Ilker R. Capoglu, Jeremy D. Rogers, Hemant K. Roy, Randall E. Brand, Vadim Backman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Existing optical imaging techniques offer us powerful tools to directly visualize the cellular structure at the microscale; however, their capability of nanoscale sensitivity is restricted by the diffraction-limited resolution. We show that the mesoscopic light transport theory analysis of the spectra of partial waves propagating within a weakly disordered medium, such as biological cells [i.e., partial wave spectroscopy (PWS)] quantifies refractive index fluctuations at subdiffractional length scales. We validate this nanoscale sensitivity of PWS using experiments with nanostructured models. We also demonstrate the potential of this technique to detect nanoscale alterations in cells from patients with pancreatic cancer who are otherwise classified as normal by conventional microscopic histopathology.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)518-520
Number of pages3
JournalOptics Letters
Volume34
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 15 2009
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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