Scientists at Yale can now view the dynamic activity as well as the structure of the biological tissue, and this includes the blood cells moving as well as the heart beating. Multimodal imaging is benefitting greatly from the development of this new laser and researchers are impressed with the progress.
Speckle is no longer the problem that it once was, and the structural information of the laser images is not grainy. There are times when speckle can be advantageous as there is additional information carried by it and it helps biological imaging. An example of this is when blood cells are being moved, and the changes are analysed.
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Continuous wave emission is used rather than pulsed, and the machine is compact, able to toggle between modes as a result of a semiconductor element. The journal Optica has printed the findings of the Yale team.
A tadpole was used in the experiment, and its heartbeat was imaged. Professor of Applied Physics at Yale University Hui Cao explained that the hearts structures were recorded, and so was the blood that was being pumped around. The relationship between function and structure has been described by Michael. A. Choma the co -author, and he went on to add that knowing this is vital for biology. It is never truer than when micro scale motions are being studied, and flows and motions are noted within living tissue. It is a reliable laser and combines properties in a way that was not possible before.