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New Method to Detect Ultrasound with Light

Tiny, soft, transparent nanofabricated devices turned into ultrasensitive microphones
February 13, 2017

A tiny, transparent device that can fit into a contact lens has a bright future, potentially helping a range of scientific endeavors from biomedicine to geology. Developed with NEI funding by Northwestern Engineering scientists, the device, called the Micro-ring resonator detector, can determine the speed of the blood flow and the oxygen metabolic rate at the back of the eye. This information could help diagnose such common and debilitating diseases as macular degeneration and diabetes.