Paper
28 April 2015 Flexible waveguide enabled single-channel terahertz endoscopic system
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world. The current standard of care for colorectal cancer is the conventional colonoscopy, which relies exclusively on the Physician’s experience. Continuous wave terahertz (THz) imaging has the potential to offer a safe, noninvasive medical imaging modality for detecting cancers. The current study demonstrates the design and development of a prototype terahertz endoscopic system based on flexible metal-coated terahertz waveguides. A CO2 pumped Far-Infrared molecular gas laser operating at 584 GHz frequency was used for illuminating the tissue, while the reflected signals were detected using liquid Helium cooled silicon bolometer. The continuous-wave terahertz imaging system utilizes a single waveguide channel to transmit the radiation and collect the back reflected intrinsic terahertz signal from the sample and is capable of operation in both transmission and reflection modalities. The two dimensional reflectance images obtained using a prototype terahertz endoscopic system showed intrinsic contrast between cancerous and normal regions of the colorectal tissue, thereby demonstrating the potential impact of terahertz imaging for in vivo cancer detection.
© (2015) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Pallavi Doradla, Karim Alavi, Cecil S. Joseph, and Robert H. Giles "Flexible waveguide enabled single-channel terahertz endoscopic system", Proc. SPIE 9362, Terahertz, RF, Millimeter, and Submillimeter-Wave Technology and Applications VIII, 93620D (28 April 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2079417
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Cited by 2 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Terahertz radiation

Tissues

Endoscopy

Reflectivity

Waveguides

Cancer

Colorectal cancer

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