title: Quantification of nanoscale density fluctuations using electron microscopy: Light-localization properties of biological cells.
abstract: We report a study of the nanoscale mass-density fluctuations of heterogeneous optical dielectric media, including nanomaterials and biological cells, by quantifying their nanoscale light-localization properties. Transmission electron microscope images of the media are used to construct corresponding effective disordered optical lattices. Light-localization properties are studied by the statistical analysis of the inverse participation ratio (IPR) of the localized eigenfunctions of these optical lattices at the nanoscale. We validated IPR analysis using nanomaterials as models of disordered systems fabricated from dielectric nanoparticles. As an example, we then applied such analysis to distinguish between cells with different degrees of aggressive malignancy.
authors.forename: Prabhakar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pradhan
authors.forename: Dhwanil
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Damania
authors.forename: Hrushikesh M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Joshi
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Turzhitsky
authors.forename: Hariharan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Subramanian
authors.forename: Hemant K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.forename: Allen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taflove
authors.forename: Vinayak P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Dravid
authors.forename: Vadim
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Backman