Compact fiber-optic fluorosensor using high-power continuous-wave violet diode laser

In this work a compact fluorosensor has been built for point-monitoring and imaging applications. The instrument has been applied in fluorescence studies on green vegetation and on malignant tissue. The instrument is based on a violet diode laser, an integrated spectrometer and optical fibers for light delivery and collection of the fluorescence signal. This combination makes the system very compact. The high laser output power allows for coupling of the laser light into a hyperspectral diagnostic imaging instrument, developed and built by Science and Technology International. In point-monitoring mode, the instrument has been tested on superficial skin tumors and when using 8-aminolevulinic acid induced protoporphyrin IX as a tumor sensitizer, good contrast between normal and malignant tissue was achieved, clearly demonstrating its feasibility in cancer diagnostics. In imaging mode, the instrument functioned solely as a light source, coupling the excitation light into the hyperspectral imaging instrument. The set-up was tested by studying chlorophyll fluorescence from vegetation. The fluorescence signal showed a low signal-to-noise ratio mainly because of inefficient light coupling into the imaging instrument.