Development of advanced dynamic imaging technologies for biomedical diagnostics and industrial non-destructive testing

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The proposed research projects constitute fundamental support of my ongoing research program at the Center for Advanced Diffusion-Wave Technologies (CADIFT) toward the development of new advanced diffusion-wave dynamic imaging techniques and instrumentation and measurement technologies in two major fields: 1) Biomedical noninvasive diagnostics of disease, with three topics: A) Photothermal (PT) imaging of bone Osteoporosis. We recently pioneered a new high-axial -resolution PT imaging method, “Truncated-Correlation Photothermal Coherence Tomography” (TC-PCT) which produces “crisp” subsurface images in bone with a mid-infrared camera. TC-PCT imaging will be developed to monitor osteoporosis through near-surface bone-density measurements. Clinical adoption of TC-PCT may lead to early diagnosis of osteoporosis competing with today’s ionizing X-ray methods and possibly help with improvements in the treatment of the disease. B) Pre-clinical small-animal functional photothermal imaging. Small-animal (mouse, rat) imaging plays a significant role in the assessment of specific drugs or treatments, in phenotyping and understanding the pathophysiology of various diseases. TC-PCT will be developed into a depth-slice (tomographic) imaging modality of small animal tumors through blood accumulation images in thighs of mice subjected to tumor injections. C) Development of photoacoustic radar multi-wavelength imaging for reliable very early breast cancer diagnosis. Simultaneous images of subsurface tumors in animal models will be obtained using 4 wavelengths sensitive to oxygen content in blood. The measured oxygen concentration will be used as quantitative marker of the presence of malignant tumors down to 3-4 cm below the surface. 2) A CADIFT-developed non-destructive imaging (NDI) methodology named “heterodyne lock-in carrierography” (HeLIC) is sensitive to optoelectronic defects introduced in substrate wafers and processed devices. Given Canada’s growing solar panel manufacturing industry, two topics will be pursued: A) Non-contact HeLIC imaging of multi-crystalline and amorphous thin-film Si photovoltaic solar cells. No solar-cell electrodes are required; this allows the inspection to take place at any and all device fabrication stages. B) Imaging of nanosize quantum dot (CQD) solar cells which have the potential to generate photovoltaic power at much higher efficiencies than Si solar cells. The development and applications of HeLIC will help improve the fabrication process and the solar conversion efficiency of Si-based and colloidal PbS CQD photovoltaic devices.