An optical element is provided. The optical element may comprise a material, the material being a matrix and a set of particles included in the matrix, the material having a molar fraction of SiO.sub.2 higher than or equal to 65 percent, each particle having a dimension smaller than or equal to 80 nanometers.

A method for assessing a state of a living cell using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is provided. The method may include modifying one or more living eel Is with an alkyne-containing compound to form one or more modified living cells, mixing the one or more modified living cells with a SERS-active material to form a mixture, injecting the mixture into a conduit defined by an inner wall of a hollow core photonic crystal fiber, and detecting a surface enhanced Raman signal from the mixture in the conduit. In preferred embodiments, the alkyne containing compound is linoleamide alkyne (LLA) for the detection of lipid peroxidation or 4-(dihydroxyborophenyl) acetylene (DBA) for the detection of sialic acid expression in cells, both using gold nanoparticles as the SERS-active material.

Disclosed are systems and methods for manufacturing energy relays for energy directing systems and Transverse Anderson Localization. Systems and methods include providing first and second component engineered structures with first and second sets of engineered properties and forming a medium using the first component engineered structure and the second component engineered structure. The forming step includes randomizing a first engineered property in a first orientation of the medium resulting in a first variability of that engineered property in that plane, and the values of the second engineered property allowing for a variation of the first engineered property in a second orientation of the medium, where the variation of the first engineered property in the second orientation is less than the variation of the first engineered property in the first orientation.

A light diffusing optical fiber includes a glass core, a cladding, a phosphor layer surrounding the cladding, and a plurality of scattering structures positioned within the glass core, the cladding, or both. The phosphor layer includes two or more phosphors and is configured to convert guided light diffusing through the phosphor layer into emission light such that the color of the emission light has a chromaticity within a u-v chromaticity region on a CIE 1976 chromaticity space defined by: a first u-v boundary line and a second u-v boundary line that extend parallel to a planckian locus at a distance of 0.02 Duv from the planckian locus, a third u-v boundary line that extends along an isothermal line for a correlated color temperature of about 2000 K, and a fourth u-v boundary line that extends along an isothermal line for a correlated color temperature of about 10000 K.

An assembly for redirecting light emitted by an end-emitting optical fiber into an inner lumen of a body is provided. According to one implementation, the body includes one or more surfaces disposed on or in the body onto which the light is configured to impinge when the end emitting optical fiber is activated, the one or more surfaces being configured to alter the trajectory of the light so that the light is directed to impinge on a light reflector of a cap removably attached to the body, the light reflector of the cap being configured to redirect the light distally into the inner lumen of the body.

Disclosed are image relay elements exhibiting transverse Anderson localization for light field and holographic energy sources. The relay elements may include a relay element body having one or more structures, where the structures can be coupled in series, in parallel and/or in stacked configurations. The structures may have multiple surfaces such that energy waves propagating therethrough the relay elements may experience spatial magnification or de-magnification.

The invention offers high resolution and accuracy for nanoscale temperature mapping. Instead of collecting light after emission in near-field that decays to far-field, the present invention directly couples the near-field waves to a polaritonic-coated infrared probe. The polaritonic coating can be formed on an IR-tuned optical fiber to receive the coupled IR radiation and form polaritons, including plasmons or phonons, using the IR polaritonic material. The IR polaritons propagate along the probe decay back into the fiber core without substantial losses to far-field and are transmitted to a detector, such as a spectroscope. The coupling of the near-field energy to emission detected through the tip apex of fiber can be expressed as emission spectra. Through mapping with other spatial points, multi-dimensional displays and other information can be provided. The resolution can be less than 100 nanometers, such as at least an order of magnitude less than 100 nanometers.

A system for disinfecting a medical device is provided. The system includes a light source that generates light having at least one wavelength between about 100 nm and about 500 nm. The system further includes at least one cylindrical optical diffuser disposed in optical communication with at least one interior channel of a medical device, the at least one cylindrical optical diffuser having an outer surface and an end optically coupled to the light source. The at least one cylindrical optical diffuser is configured to scatter guided light through the outer surface to form a light diffuser portion having a length that emits substantially uniform radiation over its length.

An illumination system (100) includes a light diffusing optical fiber (110) and a light output device (140) having a light source (142). The light diffusing optical fiber (110) includes a first end (112), a second end (114), a core (120), a cladding (122) surrounding the core (102), an outer surface (128), and a plurality of nano-sized structures (125) configured to scatter guided light through the outer surface (128). The light diffusing optical fiber (110) has a numerical aperture NA.sub.LDF. The light output device (140) has an effective numerical aperture NA.sub.0, which is less than the numerical aperture NA.sub.LDF of the light diffusing optical fiber (110). Further, the light output device (140) is optically coupled to an end face (116) of the first end (112) of the light diffusing optical fiber (110) such that light output by the light source of the light output device irradiates the end face (116) at an incident angle .sub.i that is non-orthogonal to the end face (116) and is within approximately 5 of sin.sup.1 NA.sub.LDFsin.sup.1 NA.sub.0.

A method for locally introducing a light emitter or a plasmonic element into a light guide is provided. The method (300) comprising the acts of: applying (302) a printing head (100) to a surface (204) of the light guide (202, 404), the printing head (100, 200) comprising an insertion portion (102) comprising the light emitter (106) or the plasmonic element and a heating element (108), heating (304) the heating element (108) such that a portion (205) of the surface (204) of the light guide (202, 404) is locally heated, pressing (306) the printing head (100, 200) into the light guide (202, 404) such that at least a portion (208) of the insertion portion (102) is inserted into the light guide (202, 404), introducing (308) the light emitter (106) or the plasmonic element (500) into the light guide (202, 404) via the insertion portion (102). A printing head (100, 200) for locally introducing a light emitter (106) or a plasmonic element (500) into a light guide (202, 404) is also provided. A light guide (202, 404) comprising a light emitter (106) or a plasmonic element (200) introduced into the light guide (202, 404) by use of the method (300) or the printing head (100, 200) is further provided.