High-Performance Solid State Dye Lasers For Wound Care and Cosmetic Treatments

用于伤口护理和美容治疗的高性能固态染料激光器

• 批准号: 10010009
• 负责人: Christopher R Benson
• 金额: $ 20.64万
• 依托单位: STAR VOLTAIC LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-10 至 2022-04-09
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10010009
• 关键词: Acne; Acute; Address; Anions; Beauty; Behavior; Businesses; Characteristics; Cicatrix; Clinic; Clinical; Cosmetics; Crystallization; Data; Dermatology; Devices; Dyes; Effectiveness; Energy Transfer; Film; Fluorescent Dyes; Goals; Health; Health Services Accessibility; Hospitals; Immune; Improve Access; Intervention; Lasers; Libraries; Light; Liquid substance; Low-Level Laser Therapy; Maintenance; Medical; Medicine; Methodology; Monitor; Morphology; Optics; Outcome; Patient-Focused Outcomes; Patients; Performance; Pharmacologic Substance; Phase; Physicians; Physiologic pulse; Plant Roots; Polymers; Population; Process; Pump; Quality of life; Rhodamines; Rural Hospitals; Sampling; Schools; Semiconductors; Services; Signal Transduction; Skin Cancer; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Solid; Solubility; Sterilization; Stretching; System; Technology; Testing; Therapeutic; Time; Work; base; cancer therapy; cost; design; experimental study; gain of function; high standard; improved; intermolecular interaction; materials science; novel; operation; patient home care; patient population; performance tests; portability; practical application; prototype; receptor; small molecule; solid state; tool; wound; wound care

Abstract Solid state pulsed dye lasers (ssPDLs) are a potentially revolutionary class of therapeutic lasers that could be used to address a broad array of health issues, from mundane conditions like acne to serious interventions like skin cancer treatment, wound sterilization, and scar remodeling. In addition, these lasers would also be compact, inexpensive, and easily switch between emission wavelengths. These improved performance metrics could have a number of significant impacts: First, it could reduce the number of devices needed in a practice, as most medical lasers are not capable of generating more than one wavelength of light, requiring multiple lasers. In addition, the lower cost and portability would improve patient access to the treatment, as it would increase the number of physicians who could afford to purchase and maintain a laser, and increase its mobility. Unfortunately, the critical component of these lasers suffer from a fundamental materials science problem: The poor solubility of laser dyes. For a laser to work, you must have a “gain medium” that allows the device to generate light. In ssPDLs, this gain medium is composed of fluorescent dyes dissolved in a solid polymer matrix. When dispersed at low concentrations, laser dyes are highly efficient emitters of light, but the small number of dye molecules in the gain medium means the laser power will be low. Unfortunately, when the concentration is increased the dye molecules are no longer efficient emitters. This is a result of “quenching”, a phenomenon in which over-concentrated dyes aggregate and lose their ability to generate light. In practice, this means laser dye gain media are confined to low power operation, because there’s no way to get both highly efficient emission and a large number of molecules in the gain medium. If it were possible to overcome the concentration limits of fluorescent dyes in polymer media an opportunity would exist to create an ssPDL that lives up to its full potential. Star Voltaic, LLC, doing business as Halophore, has developed a solution to this decades-old problem: Novel fluorescent materials that can be utilized at concentrations much higher than the current dye materials. These materials are immune to the “quenching” phenomenon that hinders other ssPDL media, and can achieve brightnesses 100x greater than any current technology. Our proposal’s central hypothesis is that the superior brightness of our concentrated fluorescent materials will allow us to make a laser with improved performance, capable of making a high-power beam that can easily switch between wavelengths. To test this hypothesis, we will pursue three Specific Aims: (1) Develop processing conditions for making dye-doped gain media; (2) construct a prototype laser system for the ssPDL media; (3) test the functionality of the gain medium in the prototype laser system, confirming characteristics of high performance, like high lasing efficiency and high signal gain. If successful, we will be one step away from a device capable of treating a full range of conditions in clinical and remote settings (e.g., schools, home care, rural hospitals) improving quality of life and health outcomes for a large number of patients.

抽象的 固态脉冲染料激光器 (ssPDL) 是一种潜在的革命性治疗激光器，可以 用于解决广泛的健康问题，从痤疮等普通状况到诸如痤疮等严重干预措施 皮肤癌治疗、伤口消毒和疤痕重塑。此外，这些激光器还将 结构紧凑，价格低廉，并且可以在发射波长之间轻松切换。这些改进的性能指标 可能会产生许多重大影响：首先，它可以减少实践中所需的设备数量， 由于大多数医用激光器不能产生超过一种波长的光，因此需要多个 激光。此外，较低的成本和便携性将改善患者获得治疗的机会，因为 增加有能力购买和维护激光的医生数量，并提高其流动性。 不幸的是，这些激光器的关键部件遇到了一个基本的材料科学问题： 激光染料的溶解度差。要使激光器工作，您必须有一种“增益介质”，使设备能够 产生光。在 ssPDL 中，这种增益介质由溶解在固体聚合物中的荧光染料组成 矩阵。当以低浓度分散时，激光染料是高效的光发射体，但小 增益介质中染料分子的数量意味着激光功率较低。不幸的是，当 浓度增加，染料分子不再是有效的发射体。这是“淬火”的结果 过度浓缩的染料聚集并失去发光能力的现象。在实践中，这 意味着激光染料增益介质仅限于低功率运行，因为没有办法同时获得高功率 有效的发射和增益介质中的大量分子。如果有可能克服 聚合物介质中荧光染料的浓度限制将存在创建 ssPDL 的机会 充分发挥其潜力。 Star Voltaic, LLC（以 Halophore 名义开展业务）为此开发了一种解决方案 几十年前的问题：新型荧光材料的使用浓度远高于 目前的染料材料。这些材料不受阻碍其他 ssPDL 的“淬火”现象的影响 媒体，并且可以实现比任何当前技术高 100 倍的亮度。我们建议的核心 假设我们的浓缩荧光材料的卓越亮度将使我们能够制造出 具有改进性能的激光器，能够产生可以轻松切换的高功率光束 波长。为了检验这一假设，我们将追求三个具体目标：（1）开发加工条件 制作染料掺杂增益介质； (2) 构建 ssPDL 介质激光系统原型； (3) 测试 原型激光系统中增益介质的功能，确认高性能特性， 例如高激光效率和高信号增益。如果成功的话，我们将距离一种能够实现以下功能的设备仅一步之遥： 在临床和偏远地区（例如学校、家庭护理、乡村医院）治疗各种病症 改善大量患者的生活质量和健康结果。