Title:

Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy for Probing Deep inside Optically Turbid Materials – from Airport Security to Non-invasive Cancer Diagnosis

Abstract:

The non-invasive compositional analysis of diffusely scattering (turbid) samples such as powders, opaque bottles and biological tissues at depth is a fast evolving area of Raman spectroscopy spurred by the recent advent of Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS) at the Central Laser Facility at STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

Accessible depths with SORS can be more than an order of magnitude larger than those attainable by conventional Raman spectroscopy. This enable probing, for example, several mm’s, and in some cases, several cm’s deep inside biological tissues, to retrieve highly chemically rich information on the composition of hidden sample components.

This has opened prospects for numerous applications across a wide range of disciplines including non-invasive cancer diagnosis, probing of opaque bottles without opening them in airport security, quality control of pharmaceutical products, and subsurface analysis of objects of art.

The presentation will cover basic principles of SORS along with its emerging applications.

Biography:

Prof Matousek, FREng, obtained his MSc and PhD degrees in physics from the Czech Technical University (Prague), the latter carried out at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL, Oxfordshire). Since 1991 he has worked at the Central Laser Facility at RAL in the areas of steady state and ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy.

He proposed the use of Optical Parametric Chirped-Pulse Amplification (OPCPA) for the generation of extreme, multi-PW laser peak powers, pioneered ps-Kerr gating for fluorescence rejection in Raman scpectroscopy, proposed Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS) and introduced Transmission Raman spectroscopy (TRS) into pharmaceutical analysis.

Prof Matousek’s current research areas include non-invasive disease diagnosis, security screening, forensics, cultural heritage and pharmaceutical analysis.