Optical antenna makes fibres sense X-rays
- Author:Ella Cai
- Release on:2017-03-29
X-rays have been sensed with high resolution using an optical antenna on the end of an optical fibre – which could offer another route to precision medical imaging.
“We want to develop this technology so that it could be used in radiotherapy, for example,” said Thierry Grosjean of the FEMTO-ST Institute at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research. “Specifically, the sensor could allow a real-time measurement of how much radiation is being delivered to a tumour via endoscopy.”
Key to operation is a scintillating material which converts received X-rays to optical frequencies.
The optical antenna gathers emissions from the scintillator and launches the photons into the single-mode fire. Without the antenna, coupling would be too poor.
“An optical antenna works much like a radio frequency antenna, offering a way to interconnect an emitter with free-space,” said Grosjean. “We demonstrated that they can be used to control the directionality of the emission from scintillators.”
Although the X-ray sensor fabrication required a clean room facility, according to the team, it is not a difficult or expensive process.
Experiments indicate that the sensor has a spatial resolution on the order of 1μm. To allow the tip to be used to as a low-energy X-ray scanning microscope to distinguish chemical components in composite materials, this needs to be improved to 100nm, said the researchers.
“We want to develop this technology so that it could be used in radiotherapy, for example,” said Thierry Grosjean of the FEMTO-ST Institute at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research. “Specifically, the sensor could allow a real-time measurement of how much radiation is being delivered to a tumour via endoscopy.”
Key to operation is a scintillating material which converts received X-rays to optical frequencies.
The optical antenna gathers emissions from the scintillator and launches the photons into the single-mode fire. Without the antenna, coupling would be too poor.
“An optical antenna works much like a radio frequency antenna, offering a way to interconnect an emitter with free-space,” said Grosjean. “We demonstrated that they can be used to control the directionality of the emission from scintillators.”
Although the X-ray sensor fabrication required a clean room facility, according to the team, it is not a difficult or expensive process.
Experiments indicate that the sensor has a spatial resolution on the order of 1μm. To allow the tip to be used to as a low-energy X-ray scanning microscope to distinguish chemical components in composite materials, this needs to be improved to 100nm, said the researchers.
