Marc-André Vingeault

Position: Master Student in Biophotonics, Université Laval, Québec, Canada

Academia: Bachelor’s degree in Physics Engineering, Université Laval, Québec, Canada

Director: Prof. Daniel Côté

Emailmarc-andre.vigneault.2@ulaval.ca

Advanced in-vivo brain tissue identification on SERS substrate for DBS guiding optical fiber probe using deposition of gold nanoparticles

With the development of the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) technique in recent years, the aim of the project is to apply this technique in the field of cell identification for detection and guidance applications in the brain. The use of gold nanoparticles deposited on an optical fiber would allow to guide the radiation emitted by the nanobeads into the fiber. More specifically, nano-cylinders or nano-stars would make possible the adjustment of the resonance frequency of the meta-material and thus increase the amplification of the Raman signal. With the formation of “hotspots”, the Raman signal can be amplified by more than 6 orders of magnitude. This technology would allow the identification of brain tissue without the need for bulky and complex optical components and would ideally allow the distinction between white matter and gray matter below the second. Thus, this technology could be inserted into a deep brain stimulation probe for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, thus facilitating manipulation during surgery and limiting positioning errors.