Fast diffuse correlation spectroscopy with a low-cost, fiber-less embedded diode laser

Diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS), a popular optical technique for fast noninvasive measurement of blood flow, is commonly implemented using expensive fiber-coupled long coherence length laser systems. Here, we report the development of a portable and fiber-less approach that can be used as a low-cost alternative to illuminate tissue in DCS instruments. We validate the accuracy and noise characteristics of the fiber-less DCS laser source, by comparisons against traditional DCS light sources, with experiments on controlled tissue-simulating phantoms and in humans.