Octave-spanning mid-infrared electric field-resolved molecular fingerprinting of human blood plasma

Abstract

Field-resolved infrared spectroscopy (FRS) with electro-optic sampling (EOS) has the potential to measure liquid samples with unprecedented sensitivity and dynamic range [1,2]. FRS records the fingerprint signature of the electric-field response, coherently emitted from vibrationally excited molecules in a sample, following few-cycle infrared laser excitation. With its molecular sensitivity covering large parts of organic biomolecules, standardized FRS measurements on readily available body liquids like human blood plasma have the potential to provide a new generalized approach for health monitoring and early disease detection [3,4]. Here, we report an FRS system with super-octave-spanning infrared coverage (5.5-12 μm), optimized for regular human blood sample measurements. First field-resolved infrared measurements on a set of 351 human blood plasma from the clinical study Health for Hungary (H4H) are investigated here.