Breath is one of the main sources of human health parameters that can be used for predicting the state of internal organs. Exhaled breath composition is very complex and the existence of disease marker molecules can be as low as one part per million. That means that using breath for health monitoring purposes requires highly sensitive tools with a recognition ability down to single molecules. Researchers developed a method for fast, on-site and still accurate breath analysis that does not ...

A novel method for fast and accurate local tuning of the optoelectronic properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes makes use of ultrafast-pulsed lasers. The method is based on localized two-photon oxidation of carbon nanotubes when the laser irradiates with energies far below the ablation threshold. At such low energies the nonlinear photochemical interaction of femtosecond laser and carbon atomic lattice prevent thermal effects.