I am a senior lecturer in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Kent and a member of the Applied Optics Group, where I develop imaging techniques for applications in biosciences and medicine. My research is focused on imaging techniques based on optical coherence tomography, elastography, and photoacoustics.
I began my career at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Iasi and graduated in 1997 with a BSc in Physics (5-year programme!). After graduation, I studied for my MSc degree in Optics, Optoelectronics, and Microwaves at École Nationale Supérieure d’Électronique et de Radioélectricité de Grenoble (ENSERG), Grenoble, France; my MSc thesis was on Spectrophotometry of turbid media using optical fibre probes. I completed my PhD in the group of Prof. Jacques Derouard at Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble, France, in 2004.
My PhD thesis title was Methodes Optiques d’exploration des tissus biologiques. Spectrometrie des tissus cerebraux au moyen des sondes miniatures a fibres optiques et imagerie par Tomographie Optique Coherente (pardon my French). The thesis can be downloaded from https://theses.hal.science/tel-00007180.
My current research activities are focused on developing Optical Coherence Tomography instrumentation (for example, the NEXTGB and VISOCT projects) and photo-acoustics tomography (project PARS). The core of the instruments I am developing is the Master-Slave technique. This is a novel method introduced by Prof. Podoleanu and me several years ago to produce optical coherence tomography images. We submitted a patent and published more than ten journal papers in this respect.
Other research activities I am involved with:
Developing dedicated software to acquire data, display, and analyse the images using cutting-edge techniques and methods for the camera, swept source, master-slave interferometry-based optical coherent tomography (OCT) systems, and more. Combining spectral and time-domain interferometry principles to implement novel configurations up to proof of concept, applicable to bio-sensing and cell, tissue imaging, or imaging of different organs.
Imaging systems, combining coherence-gated wave-front sensors with one or more of the following imaging channels, optical coherence tomography, confocal microscopy, non-linear microscopy and then combining coherence-gated wave-front sensing with optical coherence tomography, using different or similar principles of time domain and spectral domain interferometry.
Extending the axial range in swept-source optical coherence tomography using re-circulation loops is quite a hot topic in the OCT community. The motivation for this work is related to the fact that one of the main drawbacks of swept-source optical coherence tomography is its limited axial range. Novel interferometer configurations are tested and equipped with adjustable path length rings in each arm. By compensating for the losses in the rings using semiconductor optical amplifiers, multiple paths A-scans can be obtained, which, when combined axially, can lead to a highly long overall axial range. The effect of the re-circulation loops is equivalent to extending the coherence length of the swept source. In this way, the axial imaging range in swept-source optical coherence tomography can be extended well beyond the limit imposed by the coherence length of the laser to exceed, in principle, many centimetres.
Non-invasive imaging of biological tissues: optical coherence tomography and confocal microscopy techniques for biological tissue imaging and adaptive optics techniques for retinal imaging.
Spectroscopy of biological media (development, measurements, interpretation; spectroscopic techniques and numerical simulations applied to biological media, optical phantoms preparation and handling).
Spectroscopy of the turbid media (development, measurements, interpretation, etc).