A system for irradiating a microplate may include a modular light engine with one or more light emitting devices. The light emitting devices are configured to emit germicidal radiation to irradiate the microplate, which is configured to be positioned below the modular light engine inside a chamber of the microplate irradiation system. In this way, a uniform intensity of germicidal radiation may be output by light emitting devices, resulting in disruption of contaminating nucleic acids present in the microplate.

A method and related apparatus for confirming whether a kill laser successfully destroys an undesired population of cells includes introducing fluorescent dye into cells, exciting the cells with a detection laser or a light emitting diode to cause the cell to fluoresce for a first time, measuring the amount of fluorescence in the cells with a detector capable of emitting a detection pulse, classifying the cells via embedded processing as undesired or desired cells based on the amount of fluorescence, firing a kill beam with a kill laser at any undesired cells, measuring the amount of fluorescence in the cells a second time to determine whether a fluorescent event was generated from the kill beam striking the cells, and providing feedback to an operator of the kill laser as to whether any fluorescent events were generated from the kill beam striking the cells.

A method and related apparatus for confirming whether a kill laser successfully destroys an undesired population of cells includes introducing fluorescent dye into cells, exciting the cells with a detection laser or a light emitting diode to cause the cell to fluoresce for a first time, measuring the amount of fluorescence in the cells with a detector capable of emitting a detection pulse, classifying the cells via embedded processing as undesired or desired cells based on the amount of fluorescence, firing a kill beam with a kill laser at any undesired cells, measuring the amount of fluorescence in the cells a second time to determine whether a fluorescent event was generated from the kill beam striking the cells, and providing feedback to an operator of the kill laser as to whether any fluorescent events were generated from the kill beam striking the cells.

Stack fault inspection apparatus and method are disclosed. The apparatus includes a sample stage fixing the silicon carbide substrate and allow the incident light to scan the substrate surface; an incident light source configured to irradiate a vertical illumination light of a wavelength corresponding to an energy greater than a band gap energy of the substrate to at least a portion of a surface of the substrate in a direction substantially perpendicular to the surface of the substrate; a photomultiplier tube (PMT) configured to obtain a photoluminescence mapping image having a wavelength corresponding to the band gap energy of the substrate from the surface of the substrate; and a controller configured to process the mapping image and identify stacking faults.

A process for determining the type of a diamond, wherein the type of diamond is determined by the steps of (i) measuring the fluorescence lifetime characteristics of colour centres of a diamond of unknown type (110a); and (ii) determining the type of diamond by comparing the fluorescence lifetime characteristics measured at step (i) with the fluorescence lifetime characteristics of colour centres of known diamond types (120a), wherein the fluorescence lifetime characteristics of colour centres are indicative of the physical properties of a diamond, which are indicative of the type of a diamond.

A detecting apparatus for use in specifying regions having different impurity concentrations in an ingot includes an ingot holding unit having a holding surface for holding the ingot thereon, an excitation light source for applying excitation light having a predetermined wavelength to a face side of the ingot held on the holding surface, and a photodetector for detecting fluorescence emitted from the ingot upon exposure to the excitation light and generating an electric signal representing a number of photons of only light whose wavelength is in an infrared radiation range, of the detected fluorescence.

A system for detecting defects in a contact lens material comprising: a camera having a lens and a digital image output for inspecting said lens suspended in saline solution, wherein said camera's digital image output includes only the image produced by light in a color spectrum corresponding to a portion of the spectrum of light produced by fluorescent emission of said lens material; a first Ultra violet light source to illuminate said lens and excite fluorescent emission therein; a first filter to filter the emitted light from the lens which is illuminated by Ultra violet light; and a computer having an associated memory, an input for accepting the digital image output from said camera, and an output representative of an analyzed digital image wherein said analyzed digital image includes visible indications of any imperfections detected in said lens material.

A method for mapping and analyzing a GaN substrate to identify areas of the substrate suitable for fabrication of electronic devices thereon. Raman spectroscopy is performed over the surface of a GaN substrate to produce maps of the E.sub.2 and A.sub.1 peaks at a plurality of areas on the substrate surface, the E.sub.2 and A.sub.1 peaks being associated with known concentrations of defects and charge carriers, so that areas of the GaN substrate having relatively high resistivity or conductivity which make those areas suitable or unsuitable for fabrication of electronic devices can be identified. The devices can then be fabricated only on suitable areas of the substrate, or the size of the devices can be tailored to maximize the yield of devices fabricated thereon. Substrates not meeting a threshold level of defect and/or charge carrier concentration can be discarded without fabrication of poor-quality devices thereon.

In an optical carrier injection method, a pulsed optical beam having pulse duration of 900 fs or lower is applied on a backside of a substrate of an integrated circuit (IC) wafer or chip, and is focused at a focal point in an active layer on a frontside of the substrate. Photons of the optical beam are absorbed at the focal point by nonlinear optical interaction(s) to inject carriers. The pulsed optical beam may be applied using a fiber laser in which the fiber is doped with Yb and/or Er. An output signal may be measured, comprising an electrical signal or a light output signal produced by the IC wafer or chip in response to the injected carriers. By repeating the applying, focusing, and measuring over a grid of focal points in the active layer, an image of the IC wafer or chip may be generated.

A system for detecting stimulated emission from a material of interest comprising: an excitation source; and an imaging component; wherein, in use, the system is configured to: a) emit excitation radiation from the excitation source for a first time period, the excitation radiation having a wavelength suitable for inducing stimulated emission in the material of interest; b) capture a first image via the imaging component, the first image substantially consisting of a background illumination component and a stimulated emission component; c) stop emitting excitation radiation for a second time period; d) capture a second image via the imaging component, the second image substantially consisting of the background illumination component; e) create a difference image corresponding to the difference between the first and second images, such that the difference image includes any stimulated emission signals from the material of interest.