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Researchers Model Technology After Moth’s Eyes
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Inspiration gleaned from the eye of a moth has driven international researchers to develop a nanoscale material that could dramatically enhance the “light-capturing efficiency of medical imaging devices.” Moth’s eyes are large and compound and are comprised of thousands of miniscule structures that form a lens and a primitive cornea. The eyes of the moth, though, reflect very little light and this helps them evade predators and enhances their vision in low light situations.
In the past, researchers had looked to moth eyes as a model for ways to develop technology to produce anti-reflective surfaces for the military and more efficient coatings for solar panels, according to an article in Medical Design Technology. The researchers in the study honed their researcher on materials in imagining devices, those that convert the x-rays that exit the body into a visible light signal. The researchers worked to increase the light emitted and create a higher resolution image. It was hoped that this technology would reduce the amount of radiation a patient was subjected to.
From the research was developed a film, only 500 nanometers thick, that was covered in cerium-oxyorthosilicate crystals. The crystals were covered in pyramid shaped bumps of silicon nitride; there are between 100,000 and 200,000 bumps on a moth’s eye. The surfaces of the bumps were roughened to help diffuse the light even further. The film that came about as a result of the developments were added to the scintillator of an x-ray mammography unit; the intensity of the light emitted was amplified by close to 200 percent over the traditional scintillator.
A scientist from the City University of New York was quoted, “Our work further improved upon this fascinating structure and demonstrated its use in medical imaging materials, where it promises to achieve lower patient radiation doses, higher-resolution imaging of human organs, and even smaller-scale medical imaging.” For decades, researchers have been working on technologies to help lower the patients’ exposure to radiation during x-ray treatments.
Universe Optics provides both standard and custom lens assemblies for many uses including scanners, CCTV, CCD/CMOS, surveillance, machine vision and medical imaging.