Microscopic Diamond Tracers Provide Better Imaging

A University of California, Berkeley, researcher has uncovered that microscopic diamond tracers can provide information via MRI and optical fluorescence simultaneously. This will allow scientists to get high-quality images up to a centimeter below the surface of tissue which is far more that is accessible with light alone.

This new technique will prove handy to study cells and tissue outside the body, probing blood or other fluids for chemical markers of disease, or for physiological studies in animals. It allows for light to travel 10 times deeper than previous techniques.

Published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the process uses gaps in microdiamonds left behind by carbon atoms, which are then filled with nitrogen. This allows for the nitrogen to fluoresce when hit by laser light.