ИСТИНА

In this work, ensembles of silicon nanoparticles (2 – 200 nm) fabricated through pulse laser ablation in water, and porous silicon nanocrystals (2 – 50 nm) fabricated through electrochemical etching were studied as potential contrasting agents for optical coherence tomography (OCT). The silicon nanoparticle ensembles demonstrate effective light scattering for the both fabrication methods. The revealed scattering coefficient values of water suspensions formed via laser ablation method for the visible and near-infrared ranges. The diffuse reflectance value of porous silicon layers reaches up to 50% in the 1000 – 1100 nm range. The 0.3% agar gel was used as a model object mimicking biotissue in OCT. The laser-ablated nanoparticles or the mechanically grinded porous silicon were topically applied on the phantom surface yielding contrasting of maximum 14 dB and 30 dB respectively. A sequential combining of the electrochemical etching and laser ablation techniques for manufacturing of the silicon-based contrasting agents is considering also now.