SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR QUANTITATIVE OR QUALITATIVE MEASUREMENT OF EXOGENOUS SUBSTANCES IN TISSUE AND OTHER MATERIALS USING LASER-INDUCED FLUORESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY

摘要

Methods and systems for the quantitative and qualitative determination of one or more exogenous substances within a material are described. A flow of fluorescence-exciting/ablative energy (123) is directed onto the material to ablate a thin layer of the material (124) using photochemical decomposition. Simultaneously, the laser energy induces the fluorescence (132) of the substance of interest within the ablated layer of the material. The fluorescence emitted by the substance of interest is then received by a device (126) which measures the spectrum of the received fluorescence. The fluorescence spectra are then transmitted to a spectral processing device (130) which determines whether the substance of interest is/are present in the material.