Chennai: Indian Institute of Technology Madras Researchers have demonstrated the possibility of generating biocompatible lasers from carrots, exploiting a process first discovered by Sir C.V. Raman who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930. This finding by the IIT Madras team, a first-of-its-kind development even globally, promises significant advancements in scientific and industrial research on optical spectroscopy and sensing. Apart from being bio-friendly, the system they envisage is robust and reliable, with good and linear response to temperature.
Ø Natural and fully biocompatible system.
Ø Easy and safe to handle and use.
Ø Robust and highly reliable since the lasing mode is fixed at specific wavelength by Raman vibrational mode.
Ø Temperature sensitivity of lasing mode suggesting potential sensing.
While the traditional polymers used were toxic and non-biodegradable, there has been search for more eco-friendly fluorescent polymers. Cellulose fibers for example, have been shown to facilitate multiple scattering of phonons, suggesting possibility of an organic/eco-friendly bio-compatible scattering medium. This work published in the leading journal of the Optical Society of America, Optics Letters, was chosen as the Editor's Pick of the issue (Optics Letters', page in Vol 42, page 5002 (2017) and Vol 43, page 5865 (2018)).