Speaker: Alexander Weigel (MPI Garching, host: Dombi Péter, Szipőcs Róbert)
Title: Field-resolved Infrared Spectroscopy for Blood-based Health-monitoring
Date: Tuesday, 4 June 2024, 10.00
Place: KFKI Campus, Bldg. 1, 2nd floor Conference room
Summary:
Field-resolved infrared spectroscopy (FRS) uses electro-optic sampling to directly record the vibrational response of analytes to the excitation by an ultrashort infrared pulse. Compared to conventional intensity-based Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, field-resolved detection offers several advantages, including intrinsically high dynamic range and background-free detection of the molecular response signal. I will report on our latest FRS developments, featuring super-octave-spanning infrared spectral coverage and dual-oscillator scanning at multi-kHz rates with attosecond delay precision. Interferometric extinction of the excitation pulse has the potential to increase the detection dynamic range further. I will present Cr:ZnS oscillators as an ideal laser platform for dual-oscillator EOS, providing single-cycle, ultra-broadband infrared pulses at multi-MHz repetition rates, while maintaining exceptionally high power and carrier-envelope-phase stability. For complex samples like human blood, the infrared response signals recorded with FRS provides a fingerprint of the molecular composition of the sample. We envision the application of FRS for blood-based disease detection and health monitoring, to be tested, among others, on human blood samples collected within the H4H (Health for Hungary - Hungary for Health) program.
