Laser based diagnostics – from cultural heritage to human health

Abstract

An overview of applied laser-based diagnostics as pursued at the Division of Atomic Physics, Lund University, is given. The fields of application range from environmental monitoring including cultural heritage assessment, to biomedical applications. General aspects of laser-based methods are non-intrusiveness, high spectral- and spatial resolution, and data production in real-time. Different applications are frequently generically very similar irrespective of the particular context, which, however, decides the spatial and temporal scales as well as the size of the optics employed. Thus, volcanic plume mapping by lidar, and optical mammography are two manifestations of the same principle, as is fluorescence imaging of a human bronchus by an endoscope, and the scanning of a cathedral using a fluorescence lidar system. Recent applications include remote laser-induced break-down spectroscopy (LIBS) and gas monitoring in scattering media (GASMAS). In particular, a powerful method for diagnostics of human sinus cavities was developed, where free oxygen and water molecules are monitored simultaneously.