Publications

Quantum squeezed light for probing mitochondrial membranes and study of neuroprotectants

Gourley, Paul L.; Copeland, Robert G.; McDonald, Anthony E.

We report a new nanolaser technique for measuring characteristics of human mitochondria. Because mitochondria are so small, it has been difficult to study large populations using standard light microscope or flow cytometry techniques. We recently discovered a nano-optical transduction method for high-speed analysis of submicron organelles that is well suited to mitochondrial studies. This ultrasensitive detection technique uses nano-squeezing of light into photon modes imposed by the ultrasmall organelle dimensions in a semiconductor biocavity laser. In this paper, we use the method to study the lasing spectra of normal and diseased mitochondria. We find that the diseased mitochondria exhibit larger physical diameter and standard deviation. This morphological differences are also revealed in the lasing spectra. The diseased specimens have a larger spectral linewidth than the normal, and have more variability in their statistical distributions.