Recent Advances in Smart Epidural Spinal Needles.

Lumbar puncture is a minimally invasive procedure that utilizes a spinal needle to puncture the lumbar epidural space to take a sample from the cerebrospinal fluid or inject drugs for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Physicians rely on their expertise to localize epidural space. Due to its critical procedure, the failure rate can reach up to 28%. Hence, a high level of experience and caution is required to correctly insert the needle without puncturing the dura mater, which is a fibrous layer protecting the spinal cord. Failure of spinal anesthesia is, in some cases, related to faulty needle placement techniques since it is blindly inserted. Therefore, advanced techniques for localization of the epidural space are essential to avoid any possible side effects. As for epidural space localization, various ideas were carried out over recent years to provide accurate identification of the epidural space. Subsequently, several methodologies based on mechanical and optical schemes have been proposed. Several research groups worked from different aspects of the problem, namely, the clinical and engineering sides. Hence, the main goal of this paper is to review this research with the aim of remedying the gap between the clinical side of the problem and the engineering side by examining the main techniques in building sensors for such purposes. This manuscript provides an understanding of the clinical needs of spinal needles from an anatomical point of view. Most importantly, it discusses the mechanical and optical approaches in designing and building sensors to guide spinal needles. Finally, the standards that must be followed in building smart spinal needles for approval procedures are also presented, along with some insight into future directions.

Excitation of Asymmetric Resonance with Symmetric Split-Ring Resonator.

In this paper, a new approach to excite sharp asymmetric resonances using a single completely symmetric split-ring resonator (SRR) inside a rectangular waveguide is proposed. The method is based on an asymmetry in the excitation of a symmetric split-ring resonator by placing it away from the center of the waveguide along its horizontal axis. In turn, a prominent asymmetric resonance was observed in the transmission amplitude of both the simulated results and the measured data. Using a single symmetric SRR with an asymmetric distance of 6 mm from the center of a rectangular waveguide led to the excitation of a sharp resonance with a Q-factor of 314 at 6.9 GHz. More importantly, a parametric study simulating different overlayer analytes with various refractive indices revealed a wavelength sensitivity of 579,710 nm/RIU for 150 µm analyte thickness.

Terahertz Asymmetric S-Shaped Complementary Metasurface Biosensor for Glucose Concentration.

In this article, we present a free-standing terahertz metasurface based on asymmetric S-shaped complementary resonators under normal incidence in transmission mode configuration. Each unit cell of the metasurface consists of two arms of mirrored S-shaped slots. We investigate the frequency response at different geometrical asymmetry via modifying the dimensions of one arm of the resonator. This configuration enables the excitation of asymmetric quasi-bound states in the continuum resonance and, hence, features very good field confinement that is very important for biosensing applications. Moreover, the performance of this configuration as a biosensor was examined for glucose concentration levels from 54 mg/dL to 342 mg/dL. This range covers hypoglycemia, normal, and hyperglycemia diabetes mellitus conditions. Two sample coating scenarios were considered, namely the top layer when the sample covers the metasurface and the top and bottom layers when the metasurface is sandwiched between the two layers. This strategy enabled very large resonance frequency redshifts of 236.1 and 286.6 GHz that were observed for the two scenarios for a 342 mg/dL concentration level and a layer thickness of 20 µm. Furthermore, for the second scenario and the same thickness, a wavelength sensitivity of 322,749 nm/RIU was found, which represents a factor of 2.3 enhancement compared to previous studies. The suggested terahertz metasurface biosensor in this paper could be used in the future for identifying hypoglycaemia and hyperglycemia conditions.

Observation and motor imagery balance tasks evaluation: An fNIRS feasibility study.

In this study, we aimed at exploring the feasibility of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) for studying the observation and/or motor imagination of various postural tasks. Thirteen healthy adult subjects followed five trials of static and dynamic standing balance tasks, throughout three different experimental setups of action observation (AO), a combination of action observation and motor imagery (AO+MI), and motor imagery (MI). During static and dynamic standing tasks, both the AO+MI and MI experiments revealed that many channels in prefrontal or motor regions are significantly activated while the AO experiment showed almost no significant increase in activations in most of the channels. The contrast between static and dynamic standing tasks showed that with more demanding balance tasks, relative higher activation patterns were observed, particularly during AO and in AO+MI experiments in the frontopolar area. Moreover, the AO+MI experiment revealed a significant difference in premotor and supplementary motor cortices that are related to balance control. Furthermore, it has been observed that the AO+MI experiment induced relatively higher activation patterns in comparison to AO or MI alone. Remarkably, the results of this work match its counterpart from previous functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. Therefore, they may pave the way for using the fNIRS as a diagnostic tool for evaluating the performance of the non-physical balance training during the rehabilitation period of temporally immobilized patients.

A Review of Non-Invasive Optical Systems for Continuous Blood Glucose Monitoring.

The prevalence of diabetes is increasing globally. More than 690 million cases of diabetes are expected worldwide by 2045. Continuous blood glucose monitoring is essential to control the disease and avoid long-term complications. Diabetics suffer on a daily basis with the traditional glucose monitors currently in use, which are invasive, painful, and cost-intensive. Therefore, the demand for non-invasive, painless, economical, and reliable approaches to monitor glucose levels is increasing. Since the last decades, many glucose sensing technologies have been developed. Researchers and scientists have been working on the enhancement of these technologies to achieve better results. This paper provides an updated review of some of the pioneering non-invasive optical techniques for monitoring blood glucose levels that have been proposed in the last six years, including a summary of state-of-the-art error analysis and validation techniques.

Active Control of Nanodielectric-Induced THz Quasi-BIC in Flexible Metasurfaces: A Platform for Modulation and Sensing.

A bound state in the continuum (BIC) is a nonradiating state of light embedded in the continuum of propagating modes providing drastic enhancement of the electromagnetic field and its localization at micro-nanoscale. However, access to such modes in the far-field requires symmetry breaking. Here, it is demonstrated that a nanometric dielectric or semiconductor layer, 1000 times thinner than the resonant wavelength (λ/1000), induces a dynamically controllable quasi-bound state in the continuum (QBIC) with ultrahigh quality factor in a symmetric metallic metasurface at terahertz frequencies. Photoexcitation of nanostrips of germanium activates ultrafast switching of a QBIC resonance with 200% transmission intensity modulation and complete recovery within 7 ps on a low-loss flexible substrate. The nanostrips also form microchannels that provide an opportunity for BIC-based refractive index sensing. An optimization model is presented for (switchable) QBIC resonances of metamaterial arrays of planar symmetric resonators modified with any (active) dielectric for inverse metamaterial design that can serve as an enabling platform for active micro-nanophotonic devices.

Glucose Level Sensing Using Single Asymmetric Split Ring Resonator.

In this article, a biosensor composed of a single metamaterial asymmetric resonator is specifically designed for sensing the glucose level of 1 µL of solution. The resonator has two gaps, and one of them ends with a semicircle shape on which the glucose solution is placed. This design helps in confining the drops of glucose solutions in a specific area where the field is maximally confined in order to enhance the electromagnetic wave-matter interaction. Six samples of glucose solutions with concentrations that cover hypoglycemia, normal and hyperglycemia conditions that vary from around 41 to 312 mg/dL were prepared and examined by this biosensor. The resonance frequency redshift was used as a measure of the changes in the glucose level of the solutions. Without glucose solution, an excellent agreement between the measured and simulated transmission amplitude was observed. The increase in glucose concentrations exhibited clear and noticeable redshifts in the resonance frequency. This biosensor revealed a 0.9997 coefficient of determination, which implies an excellent prediction fitting model. More importantly, a sensitivity of 438 kHz/(mg/dL) was observed over the range of concentrations of the aqueous solution.

Free-Standing Complementary Asymmetric Metasurface for Terahertz Sensing Applications.

We designed and tested a highly sensitive metasurface device based on free-standing complementary asymmetric split-ring resonators at terahertz frequencies. It is utilized for sensing a galactose film. We characterized the device using the induced red shift of a Fano resonance observed in the THz transmission. The sensor has a high sensitivity of 91.7 GHz/RIU due to a significant interaction between the galactose overlayer and the metasurface.

Hemodynamic responses during standing and sitting activities: a study toward fNIRS-BCI.

In this paper, we utilized functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technology to examine the hemodynamic responses in the motor cortex for two conditions, namely standing and sitting tasks. Nine subjects performed five trials of standing and sitting (SAS) tasks with both real movements and imagery thinking of SAS. A group level of statistical parametric mapping (SPM) analysis during these tasks showed bilateral activation of oxy-hemoglobin for both real movements and imagery experiments. Interestingly, the SPM analysis clearly revealed that the sitting tasks induced a higher oxy-hemoglobin level activation compared to the standing task. Remarkably, this finding is persistent across the 22 measured channels at the individual and group levels for both experiments. Furthermore, six features were extracted from pre-processed HbO signals and the performance of four different classifiers was examined in order to test the viability of using SAS tasks in future fNIRS-brain-computer interface (fNIRS-BCI) systems. In particular, two features-combination tests revealed that the signal slope with signal variance represents one of the three best two-combined features for its consistency in providing high accuracy results for both real and imagery experiments. This study shows the potential of implementing such tasks into the fNIRS-BCI system. In the future, the results of this work could pave the way towards the application of fNIRS-BCI in lower limb rehabilitation.

Active Photoswitching of Sharp Fano Resonances in THz Metadevices.

Fano resonances offer exciting features in enhancing the non-linearity and sensing capabilities in metamaterial systems. An active photoswitching of Fano resonances in a terahertz metadevice at low optical pump powers is demonstrated, which signifies the extreme sensitivity of the high-quality-factor resonant electric field to the external light illumination.

Active terahertz two-wire waveguides.

We demonstrate, by generating a THz electric field directly within the guiding structure, an active two-wire waveguide operating in the terahertz (THz) range of wavelengths. We compare the energy throughput of the active configuration with that of a radiatively coupled semi-large photoconductive antenna, in which the radiation is generated outside the waveguide, reporting a 60 times higher energy throughput for the same illumination power and applied voltage. This novel, active waveguide design allows to have efficient coupling of the THz radiation in a dispersion-less waveguide without the need of involved radiative coupling geometries.

Conductive coupling of split ring resonators: a path to THz metamaterials with ultrasharp resonances.

We report on a novel metamaterial structure that sustains extremely sharp resonances in the terahertz domain. This system involves two conductively coupled split ring resonators that together exhibit a novel resonance, in broad analogy to the antiphase mode of the so-called Huygens coupled pendulum. Even though this resonance is in principle forbidden in each individual symmetric split ring, our experiments show that this new coupled mode can sustain quality factors that are more than one order of magnitude larger than those of conventional split ring arrangements. Because of the universality of the metamaterial response, the design principle we present here can be applied across the entire electromagnetic spectrum and to various metamaterial resonators.

Limitation in thin-film sensing with transmission-mode terahertz time-domain spectroscopy.

Thin-film sensing with a film thickness much less than a wavelength is an important challenge in conventional transmission-mode terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). Since the interaction length between terahertz waves and a sample film is short, a small change in the transmitted signal compared with the reference is considerably obscured by system uncertainties. In this article, several possible thin-film measurement procedures are carefully investigated. It is suggested that an alternating sample and reference measurement approach is most robust for thin-film sensing. In addition, a closed-form criterion is developed to determine the critical thickness, i.e., the minimal thickness of a film unambiguously detectable by transmission-mode THz-TDS. The analysis considers influences from the Fresnel transmission at interfaces and the Fabry-Pérot reflections, in addition to the propagation across the film. The experimental results show that typical THz-TDS systems can detect polymer films with a thickness down to a few microns, two orders of magnitude less than the wavelength. For reasonably accurate characterization, it is recommended that the film thickness be at least ten times above this limit. The analysis is readily extended to biomolecular and semiconductor films. The criterion can be used to estimate the system-dependent performance in thin-film sensing applications, and can help to ascertain whether an alternative terahertz sensing modality is necessary.

Self-referenced spectral domain interferometry for improved signal-to-noise measurement of terahertz radiation.

In this work, we demonstrate self-referenced spectral domain interferometry for the electro-optic sampling of terahertz (THz) electric fields. This technique allows reduction of the phase noise of the measurement, thus increasing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Using the proposed technique, we achieve a more than sixfold improvement in the SNR of the detected THz electric field.

Terahertz detection using spectral domain interferometry.

In this work, we present a novel method based on spectral domain interferometry for the electro-optic (EO) sampling of terahertz (THz) electric fields. This technique allows the use of thick crystals without the drawback of the over-rotation that may occur with intense THz sources, allowing longer temporal scans and thus, better spectral resolution. Using this technique, a phase difference of approximately 8898π can be measured, which is 18,000 times larger than the phase difference that could be measured using EO sampling.

Low-loss ultra-high-Q dark mode plasmonic Fano metamaterials.

We experimentally demonstrate a planar terahertz Fano metamaterial with an ultrahigh quality (Q) factor of 227. This is achieved by the excitation of the nonradiative dark modes by introducing a tiny asymmetry in the metamaterial structure. The extremely sharp quadrupole and Fano resonances are excited at normal incidence for orthogonal polarizations of the electric field. In order to capture the narrow linewidth of the dark resonance modes, we perform high resolution terahertz time-domain measurements with a scan length of 200 picoseconds and frequency resolution of 5 GHz. These high-Q metamaterials can be used in ultrasensitive label-free terahertz sensing, dense photonic integration, and narrowband filtering.

Sharp Fano resonances in THz metamaterials.

We report on the occurrence of sharp Fano resonances in planar terahertz metamaterials by introducing a weak asymmetry in a two gap split ring resonator. As the structural symmetry of the metamaterial is broken a Fano resonance evolves in the low-frequency flank of the symmetric fundamental dipole mode resonance. This Fano resonance can have much higher Q factors than that known from single gap split ring resonators. Supporting simulations indicate a Q factor of 50 for lowest degree of asymmetry. The Q factor decreases exponentially with increasing asymmetry. Hence, minute structural variations allow for a tuning of the Fano resonance. Such sharp resonances could be exploited for biochemical sensing. Besides, the strong current oscillations excited at the Fano resonance frequency could lead to the design of novel terahertz narrow band emitters.

Extremely large extinction efficiency and field enhancement in terahertz resonant dipole nanoantennas.

The distinctive ability of nanometallic structures to manipulate light at the nanoscale has recently promoted their use for a spectacular set of applications in a wide range of areas of research including artificial optical materials, nano-imaging, biosensing, and nonlinear optics. Here we transfer this concept to the terahertz spectral region, demonstrating a metal nanostructure in shape of a dipole nanoantenna, which can efficiently resonate at terahertz frequencies, showing an effective cross section >100 times larger than its geometrical area, and a field enhancement factor of ~280, confined on a lateral section of ~λ/1,000. These results lead to immediate applications in terahertz artificial materials exhibiting giant dichroism, suggest the use of dipole nanoantennas in nanostructure-based terahertz metamaterials, and pave the way for nanoantenna-enhanced terahertz few-molecule spectroscopy and localized terahertz nonlinear optics.

Asymmetric planar terahertz metamaterials.

We report an experimental observation of three distinct resonances in split ring resonators (SRRs) for both vertical and horizontal electric field polarizations at normal incidence by use of terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. Breaking the symmetry in SRRs by gradually displacing the capacitive gap from the centre towards the corner of the ring allows for an 85% modulation of the fundamental inductive-capacitive resonance. Increasing asymmetry leads to the evolution of an otherwise inaccessible high quality factor electric quadrupole resonance that can be exploited for bio-sensing applications in the terahertz region.