Holographic monitoring of spatial distributions of singlet oxygen in water

A method for monitoring spatial distributions of singlet oxygen in biological media has been developed. Singlet oxygen was generated using Radachlorin photosensitizer, while thermal disturbances caused by nonradiative deactivation of singlet oxygen were detected by the holographic interferometry technique. Processing of interferograms yields temperature maps that characterize the deactivation process and show the distribution of singlet oxygen species.