title: Nontoxic and chemically stable hollow optical fiber probe for fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.
abstract: Remote spectroscopy systems based on hollow optical fiber probes are proposed and experimental results using a Fourier transform spectroscope are presented. A hollow optical-fiber probe with a silver and polymer inner coating is used to deliver incoherent light to a target and another separate hollow fiber is used to collect the reflected light. The reflectance spectra of teeth, skin, and oral mucosa were successfully measured with the probe even from surfaces with reflectances lower than 0.5%. The preliminary results obtained using attenuated total reflection spectroscopy are also presented. This remote infrared spectroscope is useful for endoscopic measurements inside the body because it is flexible, durable, nontoxic, and has the low transmission losses associated with hollow-fiber-based probes.
authors.affiliation: Tohoku University, Department of Electrical Communications, 6-6-05 Aoba, Sendai 980-8579, Japan.
authors.forename: Saiko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kino
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsuura
mesh_terms: D005336:Fiber Optic Technology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D055100:Optical Fibers; D012867:Skin / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014070:Tooth / Q000033:anatomy & histology*