Analysis of Random Lasing in Human Blood

Abstract

Random lasing (RL) is an optical phenomenon that arises from the combination of light amplification with optical feedback through multiple scattering events. In this paper, we present our investigations of RL generation from human blood samples. We tested mixtures of rhodamine B dye solutions with different blood components, including platelets, lymphocytes, erythrocytes, and whole blood. Intense coherent RL was obtained in all cases at relatively low pump thresholds, except for erythrocytes. We also studied the potential of RL signal analysis for biosensing applications using blood samples from healthy individuals and patients suffering from Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). CLL is a blood disease characterized by a high count of lymphocytes with significant morphological changes. A statistical analysis of the RL spectra based on principal component and linear discriminant analyses was conducted for classification purposes. RL-based sample discrimination was conducted for whole blood, platelet, and lymphocyte samples, being especially successful (86.7%) for the latter. Our results highlight the potential of RL analysis as a sensing tool in blood.