Research Assistant at the Laboratory for Surface studies, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Light Scattering in Diffraction Limit Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging

Abstract
Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) microspectroscopy is a noninvasive technique for chemical imaging of micrometer size samples. Employing an infrared source, a microscope coupled to a FTIR spectrometer, and replacing a single detector with an array of detectors (128 x 128 detectors) enables collecting combined spectral and spatial information simultaneously, resulting in wavelength dependent images which, are being used for disease pathology and cell cycle study. In this research we are trying to remove one of the last technological barriers to the development of clinical spectroscopic cytology.
In diffraction limit FTIR imaging, where the size of the sample is in the same range as the incident light, scattering phenomenon appear in spectra as a result of the interaction of the light and matter. The observed scattering contribution dependents physical and chemical structure of the sample as well as the focusing optic and the light source. A new optimization method for correcting the scattering phenomena in pixelated infrared spectra and recovering wavelength dependent complex refractive of the sample using holographic phase images will be presented.

Biography

Dr. Ghazal Azarfar has defended her PhD thesis in Electrical Engineering in June 2019.  She is currently working as a research assistant at the Laboratory for Surface Studies at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (UWM). She is the president of the society for applied spectroscopy at UWM, and has received multiple awards including the Four-Year Dean’s fellowship award, Chancellor’s award  and Honorable Mention award. She has published a paper on Fourier transform infrared imaging of a single live cell. The focus of her research is scattering correction in the diffraction limit hyperspectral infrared imaging. Her research resulted in a new algorithm for 3D reconstruction of holographic images.

For more information or to schedule a meeting with the speaker, please contact Hanna Kim.
Hosted by Dr. Zhongping Chen