Robert Alfano

Robert Alfano is a distinguished professor of science and engineering at the City College of the City University of New York (CUNY), where he is the director of Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers. He works primarily in the field of biomedical imaging and spectroscopy, and is known for discovering the white light supercontinuum laser. He has published more than 700 papers in referred journals and has over 100 patents, and has won numerous awards including the SPIE’s inaugural Britton Chance Biomedical Optics Award.

FIGURE 1. Schematic of a system used to analyze carbon disulfide (CS2) Kerr gate [3]. It highlights the importance of polarizing sheets (magenta dotted boxes) and ND filters (blue dotted boxes).
Optics

Optical transmission of polaroid sheet polarizers and neutral-density filters

Dec. 5, 2024
Neutral-density (ND) filters and polarizers are two common optical components for applications within the visible and near-infrared (NIR) ranges. We measured light transmission...
FIGURE 1. Optical processes involved in Raman scattering and other light-tissue interactions are compared.1
Spectroscopy

Spectroscopy/Oncology/Optical Biopsy: Visible resonance Raman improves tumor identification and grading

Oct. 1, 2019
A novel application of visible resonance Raman (VRR) spectroscopy demonstrates potential to impact outcomes for glioma patients.
FIGURE 1. Average S3 of cancerous (solid) and normal (dash) breast tissues acquired by the selective Δλi = 40 nm: The salient difference of S3 between cancerous and normal breast tissues can be observed as two reverses of the peak intensities at ~294 and ~340 nm, and a tiny peak is evident at 385 nm for the cancerous tissue.
Research

SPECTROSCOPY: Cancer detection using Stokes shift spectroscopy

Sept. 16, 2013
Research demonstrates that—and explains why—Stokes shift spectroscopy (S3) is superior to other spectroscopic techniques for recognizing the spectral fingerprints of biomolecules...