Author(s): Vogel, Alfred; Venugopalan, Vasan | Abstract: The mechanisms of pulsed laser ablation of biological tissues were studied. The transiently empty space created between the fiber tip and the tissue surface improved the optical transmission to the target and thus increased the ablation efficiency. It was found that the structure and morphology also affect the energy transport among tissue constituents.

/pdf/mechanisms-of-pulsed-laser-ablation-of-biological-tissues-58cltfa63z.pdf

Mechanisms of pulsed laser ablation of biological tissues.

Photomechanical processes and effects in ablation.

The ablation of solids under femtosecond laser pulses is studied using a two-dimensional molecular-dynamics model. The simulations show that different expansion regimes develop as a function of the injected energy. The origin of these regimes lies in changes of the thermodynamical relaxation path the material follows when the intensity of the laser increases. The shape of the pressure waves generated as a result of the absorption of the pulse is shown to vary from bipolar at low fluence to unipolar at high fluence, as a result of the decrease of the tensile strength of the material with temperature. By combining these results with an analysis of the thermodynamical trajectories for different portions of the target, we show that four different mechanisms can account for ablation at fluences below the threshold for plasma formation, namely spallation, phase explosion, fragmentation, and vaporization. These mechanisms are characterized in detail; it is demonstrated that they can occur simultaneously in different parts of the target.

Molecular-dynamics study of ablation of solids under femtosecond laser pulses

Ultrasonic Generation by Pulsed Lasers

Cytoplasmic Molecular Delivery with Shock Waves:Importance of Impulse

Theoretical calculations of the consequences of the thermoelastic mechanism for production of stress in solids by pulsed energy input have been performed, and the effect of variations in the acoustic impedance of a transparent backup material and variations in the pulse duration as compared to the acoustic transit time across the penetration depth of the incident energy have been investigated. Experimental verification of the theoretical calculations has been done using a Q‐switched ruby laser as an energy source with samples of absorbing glass as targets. It is found that the experimental results give good agreement in the shapes of the stress pulses produced, and fair agreement in the absolute amplitude of the stress, with no adjustable parameters being required. The calculations and experiments demonstrate the validity of the thermoelastic stress‐production mechanism in solids when no phase transformation occurs.

D. J. McCloskey

Papers

Thermoelastic Stress Production in Solids