A “lab on a chip” includes an optofluidic sensor and components to analyze signals from the optofluidic sensor. The optofluidic sensor includes a substrate, a channel at least partially defined by a portion of a layer of first material on the substrate, input and output fluid reservoirs in fluid communication with the channel, at least a first radiation source coupled to the substrate adapted to generate radiation in a direction toward the channel, and at least one photodiode positioned adjacent and below the channel.

Described herein are methods and systems for analyzing a sample by applying time resolved laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy to the sample to measure lifetime time decay profile data relating to the sample, and applying multivariate analysis to process the data so as to classify a sample as, for example, normal or abnormal. The sample may be cells, fluid or tissue from any organ. The sample may be in vitro or in vivo. The data may be obtained in situ or in vitro.

A component treatment processes and treated gas turbine components are disclosed. The gas turbine treatment process includes laser-removing coating from a substrate of a turbine component to form laser-induced plasma, spectroscopically analyzing the laser-induced plasma, and discontinuing the laser-removing in response to the spectroscopic analyzing. The treated gas turbine component includes a laser-affected surface, the laser-affected surface having one or both of modified dimensions and modified microstructure due to being exposed to the laser-removing of the coating. The laser-affected surface has a depth corresponding to the laser-removing being discontinued based upon the spectroscopic analyzing of the laser-induced plasma formed from the laser-removing.

[Problem to be Solved]

Provided is a fluorescence measuring device that suppresses or eliminates fluctuations in a light source, problems of jitter associated with signal processing, and the influence of background light and performs highly sensitive and accurate quantification even when it is difficult to separate fluorescence from scattered light due to time difference or wavelength difference.

[Solution] The fluorescence measuring device includes a continuous light source 2, an excitation light irradiation unit 3, an excitation light intensity detection unit 4, a photon counting type fluorescence detection unit 5, a rectangular wave modulation circuit 6 of the continuous light source, a timing circuit 7 that generates a rectangular wave pulse to be supplied to the rectangular wave modulation circuit and a gate pulse for signal processing, a gate counter circuit 8 that counts fluorescence photon pulse signals during the gate pulse period, a physical parameter information acquisition unit 9, and a concentration calculator 10. By digitally processing digital signals with this configuration and accurately digitally calculating and subtracting the current background photon count conversion value, it is possible to perform highly sensitive and highly accurate quantification by appropriately removing the influence of the background.

Described herein are 3D single-molecule super-resolution imaging systems and methods. The provided systems and methods use modulation interferometry and phase-sensitive detection techniques that achieve less than 2 nanometer axial localization precision, which is well below the 5-10-nanometer-sized individual protein components. To illustrate the capability of this technique in probing the dynamics of complex macromolecular machines, (1) movement of individual multi-subunit E. coli RNA Polymerases were visualized through the complete transcription cycle, (2) kinetics of the initiation-elongation transition were dissected, (3) the conformational changes from the open initiation complex to the elongation complex were analyzed, and (4) the fate of σ.sup.70 initiation factors during promoter escape were determined.

Presented herein are apparatuses for use in capillary separations. An apparatus includes a coupling that integrates a capillary with a voltage source, a sheath liquid system, a fluid exit port, and a manifold. The coupling may be an elbow connector or equivalent. The manifold receives incident light from an incident light input, and emitted light is collected by a collected light output. The capillary enters the manifold at an input for the capillary, traverses the coupling, and terminates at the fluid exit port, for example an electrospray emitter. The capillary may also enter the manifold at an input for the capillary and terminates inside the manifold.

This disclosure provides methods and apparatuses for sorting target particles. In various embodiments, the disclosure provides a cassette for sorting target particles, methods for sorting target particles, methods of loading a microchannel for maintaining sample material viability, methods of quantifying sample material, and an optical apparatus for laser scanning and particle sorting.

An acoustic emission wave detector includes a housing, an optical fiber that guides light from a wideband light source into the housing, and an FBG housed in the housing and having a diffractive grating that reflects light guided into the housing. The FBG is fixed on a side of the other end in the housing such that the light guided into the housing is received by one end thereof. An acoustic emission wave from a high-voltage apparatus is received by the other end thereof.

An example system for inspecting a surface includes a laser, an optical system, a gated camera, and a control system. The laser is configured to emit pulses of light, with respective wavelengths of the pulses of light varying over time. The optical system includes at least one optical element, and is configured to direct light emitted by the laser to points along a scan line one point at a time. The gated camera is configured to record a fluorescent response of the surface from light having each wavelength of a plurality of wavelengths at each point along the scan line. The control system is configured to control the gated camera such that an aperture of the gated camera is open during fluorescence of the surface but closed during exposure of the surface to light emitted by the laser.

Fluorescence imaging system designs are described that provide larger fields-of-view, increased spatial resolution, improved modulation transfer and image quality, higher spatial sampling frequency, faster transitions between image capture when repositioning the sample plane to capture a series of images (e.g., of different fields-of-view), and improved imaging system duty cycle, and thus enable higher throughput image acquisition and analysis for genomics and other imaging applications.