Semiconductor laser insert with uniform illumination for use in photodynamic therapy

A low-cost semiconductor red laser light delivery system for esophagus cancer treatment is presented. The system is small enough for insertion into the patient's body. Scattering elements with nanoscale particles are used to achieve uniform illumination. The scattering element optimization calculations, with Mie theory, provide scattering and absorption efficiency factors for scattering particles composed of various materials. The possibility of using randomly deformed spheres and composite particles instead of perfect spheres is analyzed using an extension to Mie theory. The measured radiation pattern from a prototype light delivery system fabricated using these design criteria shows reasonable agreement with the theoretically predicted pattern. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America.