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Nonlinear Optical Microscopy of Biological Samples PDF Print E-mail
Current Research
Nonlinear Optical Microscopy of Biological Samples
Top: 3D rendering of autofluorescence (red) and second harmonic generation (green) signal from human tongue tissue. Bottom Left: SEM image fo gold nanorods. Bottom Right: two-photon image of human cancer cells labeled with targeted gold nanorods.
Nonlinear microscopy is a potential technology for the diagnosis, screening, and monitoring of disease that allows real time, non-invasive imaging to be performed with subcellular resolution hundreds of micrometers deep in scattering tissues. Our lab, in collaboration with surgeons at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, has been investigating this technology as a means to classify oral tissue biopsies as normal, precancerous, or cancerous ex-vivo. Using two-photon and second-harmonic generation microscopy, we have generated 3D maps of endogenous fluorescence from the samples, which provide morphological and functional information for biopsy case-finding. To improve the sensitivity of this technique, we are introducing novel contrast agents, such as gold nanospheres and nanorods, which are specifically targeted to proteins which are overexpressed in cancerous tissues. Furthermore, the increased brightness from these exogenous contrast agents allow for endoscopic imaging of tissues in our less-sensitive, but more clinically friendly miniaturized nonlinear microscope. 
 
Plasmonic Laser Nanoablation for lithography PDF Print E-mail
Current Research
Plasmonic Laser Nanoablation for lithography
Plasmonic Laser Nanoablation for lithography
Top: Computational electric field enhancement for infrared laser light incident on a gold nanorod on a silicon surface. Bottom: SEM images of nanorod ablation. Scale bar: 50 nm.

Moore’s Law, first stated in 1965, was an observation that computer chip density doubled every two years and that it should continue to do so for the foreseeable future. This prediction has proven remarkably prescient over the last 40 years. However, conventional lithography is limited to half of the wavelength used in fabricating features for micro? and nano?electronic devices and current fabrication technology is approaching the size limits given available light sources. Increasingly sophisticated methods are now being used to develop smaller features, but increasing cost and complexity and the existence of a fundamental limit render these methods unsustainable. In light of this problem, fabrication methods that can create features smaller than the diffraction limit are of great interest. One possible nanofabrication method is the use of plasmonic laser nanoablation. Our research focuses on the use of plasmonic laser nanoablation for fabricating nanostructures. We use computational techniques to investigate the interaction between laser light and gold nanoparticles while experimentally creating nanoablation features on silicon and glass substrates using plasmon?enhanced femtosecond laser pulses.

 
Femtosecond Laser Micromachining PDF Print E-mail
Past Research
Fundamentals of non-linear interaction of femtosecond laser pulses with materials:

Specific project: Thermal and fluid processes of a thin melt zone during femtosecond laser ablation of glass and formation of rims by single laser pulses.
 
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Ben-Yakar Lab Affiliations

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Contact Information

Prof. Adela Ben-Yakar
Phone: 512.475.9280
Email: ben-yakar@mail.utexas.edu

Ben-Yakar Group Offices: ETC 7.113
Phone: 512.471.7342

FemtoLab: ETC 7.106 | Phone: 512.471.7342
Mechanical Engineering Department C2200
University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX 78712

Shipping Address:
204 E. Dean Keeton Street Stop C2200
Austin, TX 78712-1591

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