Surgeons are using lasers more frequently. From the MIT Technology Review, we learn that smart optical fibers may someday let surgeons be slightly more casual with their laser tools:
High-powered lasers, snaked through the body inside thin optical fibers, can quickly and precisely burn off tumors lining the esophagus, intestines, or bronchial tubes. But there’s a risk: if the fiber walls fail, the laser light beam can escape and harm healthy tissue.
Now MIT researcher Yoel Fink, associate professor of materials science, has devised optical fibers that are wired with their own heat-sensitive electronics, which can be used to monitor developing defects while the laser is in use — in time to shut it down before a failure…
Optical fibers with integrated electronics could be made sensitive not just to heat, as in laser applications, but also to light, vibration, and perhaps chemicals, says Fink. Farther in the future, “smart” fibers, capable of sensing, information processing, and data storage, could be woven into fabric.
The home page of Photonic Bandgap Fibers & Devices group…