Raman probes based on optically-poled double-clad fiber and coupler

High performance micro-flow cytometer based on optical fibres

Flow cytometry is currently the gold standard for analysis of cells in the medical laboratory and biomedical research. Fuelled by the need of point-of-care diagnosis, a significant effort has been made to miniaturize and reduce cost of flow cytometers. However, despite recent advances, current microsystems remain less versatile and much slower than their large-scale counterparts. In this work, an all-silica fibre microflow cytometer is presented that measures fluorescence and scattering from particles and cells. It integrates cell transport in circular capillaries and light delivery by optical fibres. Single-stream cell focusing is performed by Elasto-inertial microfluidics to guarantee accurate and sensitive detection. The capability of this technique is extended to high flow rates (up to 800 µl/min), enabling a throughput of 2500 particles/s. The robust, portable and low-cost system described here could be the basis for a point-of-care flow cytometer with a performance comparable to commercial systems.

High sensitivity and resolution integrated optical system for portable Raman spectrometer

An integrated optical system with high sensitivity and resolution was presented. This was made possible by coupling a probe to a monochromator directly, using an aspheric lens and an achromatic lens in the coupling path, using a dichroic filter with high transmission and a steep transitional zone as a beam splitter, increasing the throughput of the monochromator, and optimizing its structural parameters. This optical system has a high sensitivity; the tested spectrogram of a glass rod demonstrated that the signal-to-noise ratio measured by the integrated optical system was almost 4 times as high as an independent probe and monochromator. The optical system also has the advantages of high resolution (4  cm^-1 or 0.28 nm), low cost, and portable size. This work lays a good groundwork for the development of a high sensitivity, high resolution, and low cost integrated portable Raman spectrometer.