An international research team recently developed a laser-based diamond sensor that can gauge magnetic fields up to 10 times more precisely than standard techniques.
A Times Now report said that identifying concussion, dementia, and epilepsy has now become more precise, affordable, and portable as the researchers developed the said advanced device.
Scientists, including from @RMIT, have taken a promising step towards a new generation of accurate, affordable and portable devices to detect brain disorders 🧠 with a laser-based diamond sensor 💎 that can measure magnetic fields more precisely than standard techniques. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/bZKXEDLWXz
— RMIT Research (@ResearchRMIT) July 4, 2022
The team's innovation could help improve existing magnetic-field sensing approaches for mapping brain activity to determine disorders.
With sufficient funding and collaboration with the industry, the team said they could create a proof-of-concept device using their new sensor within five years.
Concussion in Sports
In their study published in Science Advances, the team specified that concussion in sports has been in the spotlight recently with prominent athletes who share their stories about the substantial ramifications of head injuries maintained during their careers.
Meanwhile, approximately 250,000 Australians have epilepsy, and 5,000 suffer from some form of dementia, as explained in a Brain Tomorrow report.
The study is also relevant to a range of sectors outside healthcare, including mining, where it could result in improved mineral exploration applications.
The research was led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics in Germany, one of the top organizations for applied research in Europe that work with RMIT experts in diamond sensing technology, Professors Andrew Greentree and Brant Gibson and Dr. Marco Capelli.
Magnetoencephalography
Essentially, diamond is already employed for sensing magnetic fields, where the amount of light that's coming from quantum defects in the diamond changes with the strength of the magnetic field.
The challenge with the current approach is that most of the light is lost. According to Greentree, the breakthrough was to make a laser from the defects.
The professor added that by collecting all the light, rather than simply a small amount of it, they could detect the magnetic field ten times more accurately with their sensor compared with current best practices.
The current magnetoencephalography or MEG technology is very sensitive, although bulk, expensive to install, and has to operate at ultra-cold temperatures as well, with liquid helium, and patients need to remain still.
The present MEG machines are large devices with dedicated facilities and need magnetic shielding around them, too, explained Professor Greentree.
Baked on the New Diamond-Laser Sensor
MEG technology based on the new diamond-laser sensor would be much tinier compared to the devices today's devices, would run at room temperature, and could be fitted to patients who can move around.
The professor also said they want something that can be placed on a patient's head and "we want them to move around," and there would be no need for costly liquid helium to run such a device.
He elaborated, that with Alzheimer's disease, which is also detailed in a study published in Communications Medicine one would want to be able to gauge what's occurring in the brain following each knock.
With this MEG technology, the researchers envisage that one might be able to pick up early-onset dementia.
With epilepsy, elaborated Greentree, one could find out where it is happening, which would help to better target interventions.
Related information about how laser sensor works are shown on ATO Automation's YouTube video below:
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