A recent study by researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology identifies a method of Quantum Cascade Laser based (QCL) infrared spectroscopic imaging that provides a more rapid method than conventional Fourier transform infrared imaging (FT-IR) to examine spherulites, large semicrystalline polymer samples, in order to identify chemical and structural properties. Their work, "Rapid visualization of macromolecular orientation by discrete frequency mid-infrared spectroscopic imaging," was published in the journal Analyst.