Robert Alfano Patents Biomedical Supercontinuum Light Method

Robert Alfano has been awarded a U.S. patent (No. 20160128775A1) for a method of using supercontinuum (SC) light for medical and biological applications.

The patent covers a method and apparatus for producing SC light. Pulses are focused from a laser system into at least one of a pressurized cell and one or more fibers. A pump pulse is converted into the SC light at a specified rate of repetition, and the SC light is applied at that rate to tissue in biomedical applications.

SC light has a short coherence light and a bandwidth broader than any femtosecond laser, making it suitable for optical coherence tomography, according to the patent application.

Alfano holds 114 patents, has raised $64 million in photonics research funding and has mentored 56 doctoral students at the City College of New York since 1972, where he is currently a professor of science and engineering. He was recently honored with the Optical Society of America’s (OSA) Michael S. Feld Biophotonics Award.