Chapter 11
Biophotonics Technology Applications
Abstract Biophotonics technologies are widely used in biomedical research, in the
detection and treatment of diseases and health conditions, and in point-of-care
healthcare clinics. This chapter describes advanced tools and implementations such
as optical tweezers and optical trapping techniques that enable microscopic
manipulation of cells and molecules for exploring biological materials and func-
tions in the micrometer and nanometer regime, miniaturized photonics-based
instrumentation functions and devices such as the lab-on-a-chip and lab-on-fiber
technologies, microscope-in-a-needle concepts to enable 3-dimensional scanning of
malignant tissue within the body, and optogenetics procedures which attempt to
explore and understand the mechanisms of neuronal activity in organs such as the
brain and the heart.
Biophotonics technologies are being used in a wide variety of biochemical and
biomedical research disciplines, in the detection and treatment of various types of
diseases and health conditions, and in point-of-care healthcare clinics. This chapter
addresses several diverse technologies for such applications.
First Sect.11.1describes optical trapping schemes and optical tweezers that
enable microscopic manipulation of cells and molecules for exploring biological
materials and functions in the micrometer and nanometer regime. The basic concept
uses two light-induced opposing forces on a microscopic particle. One force
originates from the gradient radiation pressure of a focused light beam, and the
other force arises from photon scattering, which pushes objects along the propa-
gation direction of the light beam. By balancing or controlling these two forces, a
particle can be held stationary or it can be micro-manipulated.
Next, Sect. 11.2 addresses the extension to biophotonics of the dramatic
miniaturization of devices and circuits in the electronics world that has resulted in
products such as compact computers, smartphones, and handheld test equipment. In
the biophotonics world, greatly miniaturized photonics-based functions and devices
are appearing in the form oflab-on-a-chip technologyandlab-on-fiber technology.
A key use of lab-on-a-chip technology is in microfluidic devices, which nominally
are built on a substrate the size of a microscope slide. Such compact integrated
©Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016
G. Keiser,Biophotonics, Graduate Texts in Physics,
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0945-7_11
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