THIN as a human hair and with a resolution four times that of similar devices, the world's slimmest endoscope could soon visualise the parts other scopes cannot reach.
Endoscopes are used to look inside the body, and usually consist of a bundle of fibres that transmit light and images. Joseph Kahn at Stanford University, California, and colleagues have now created one out of just a single optical fibre. Usually, single fibres scramble the light signal, so the team developed an algorithm to reconstruct images.
Currently, the prototype can show objects 2.5 micrometres in size ? a third of the diameter of a red blood cell ? but the team reckons it will be able to improve the resolution to 0.3 micrometres.
The endoscope could be used to observe brain activity in minute detail or to detect cancer cells (Optics Express, doi.org/ktc).
"Just as the telecoms industry has devised ways to squeeze more information content through optical fibres, this team have done the same for medical endoscopy," says Stephen Boppart at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
This article appeared in print under the headline "World's thinnest scope revealed"
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