Laser illumination of multiple capillaries that form a waveguide

A method for simultaneously illuminating one or more materials in limited volumes of the cores of a plurality of capillaries, comprising:

• providing a plurality of substantially cylindrical capillaries, each of said capillaries including a substantially cylindrical core, a substantially transparent wall bounding said core and including inner and outer surfaces, and a portion to be illuminated, said portions being in a fixed array in which their longitudinal axes are substantially parallel and coplanar, said portions being at least partially immersed in an external medium through which light passes such that said portions of said capillaries, when filled with materials to be illuminated and illuminated with a first beam of light having its optical axis substantially coplanar with and normal to said longitudinal axes of said portions of said capillaries, form an optical waveguide in which refraction at the outer and inner surfaces of said walls of said portions of said capillaries confines a substantial fraction of the light rays which pass through the core of a first capillary in said fixed array to paths that pass through the core of each successive capillary in said array;
• providing said one or more materials to be illuminated and introducing said materials into said cores of said capillaries;
• and
• causing a first beam of light to travel along an optical axis substantially coplanar with and normal to said longitudinal axes of said portions of said capillaries, whereby refraction at the outer and inner surfaces of said walls of said portions of said capillaries confines a substantial fraction of the light rays which pass through the core of a first capillary in said array to paths that pass through the core of each successive capillary in said array.

An assembly for collecting light emitted from one or more materials comprising:

• a plurality of substantially cylindrical capillaries, each of said capillaries including a substantially cylindrical core, a substantially transparent wall bounding said core and including inner and outer surfaces, and a portion to be illuminated, said portions being in a first fixed array in which their longitudinal axes are substantially parallel and coplanar such that, when said portions are at least partially immersed in an external medium through which light passes, and said portions contain one or more materials to be illuminated, and a first beam of light having its optical axis substantially coplanar with and normal to said longitudinal axes passes through said portions, said portions of said capillaries in said array form an optical waveguide in which refraction at the outer and inner surfaces of said walls of said portions of said capillaries confines a substantial fraction of the light rays which pass through the core of a first capillary in said array to paths that pass through the core of each successive capillary in said array;
• and
• a plurality of optical fibers, each of said optical fibers including a light-collecting end and a terminal region with a longitudinal axis at said light-collecting end, said terminal regions being in a second fixed array in which said longitudinal axes of said terminal regions are substantially parallel and coplanar, and wherein the spacing of said light-collecting ends substantially matches the spacing of said portions of said capillaries in said first fixed array that forms said waveguide, said first and second fixed arrays being configured such that said light-collecting ends of said optical fibers can be positioned to collect light emitted from said cores of said capillaries.