Biomedical optics and spectroscopy

Abstract

This issue of Optika i Spektroskopiya (Optics and Spectroscopy) contains papers that reflect the current state of optical technologies that are applied and are promising for application in biomedical research. The current rapid development of optical biomedical diag� nostics and therapy is due to many factors. First, new results of basic research of interaction of optical radi� ation with biological tissues and cells, including polar� ized radiation, fluorescence in multiple scattering media, and speckleinterference phenomena, have been obtained. Second, considerable progress has been achieved in the development of systems for the delivery, detection, and visualization of optical radia� tion. Third, new computer and nanotechnologies have been created. All of this yields an opportunity to obtain new, previously unavailable information on living objects by spectroscopy methods and to ensure the more efficient photoaction on individual biological structures. Optics of nanoparticles and its applications in bio� medicine comprise a new field of nanobiotechnology. A challenging field of application of luminescent semiconductor nanoparticles that possess a broad absorption spectrum and a clearly pronounced narrow luminescence peak in the visible spectral range is med� ical diagnostics. Because the wavelength of fluores� cence of nanocrystals of the same composition depends on their size, by varying the size and compo� sition of semiconductor nanocrystals, one can vary the wavelength of their fluorescence from the blue to the IR spectral range. Remarkably, the luminescence of all colors of nanocrystals can be excited with only one radiation source. These unique properties make nanocrystals ideal fluorophores for ultrasensitive poly�