Berlin 2001 – scientific programme

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Q: Quantenoptik

Q 30: Poster: Laser in Medicine

Q 30.1: Poster

Friday, April 6, 2001, 12:30–15:00, AT2

Cut profiles by application of short CO₂ laser pulses to hard bone tissue — •Thomas Mitra¹, Mikhail Ivanenko¹, Said Afilal¹, and Peter Hering^1,2 — ¹center of advanced european studies and research, Friedenspl. 16, 53111 Bonn, Germany — ²Institute of Laser Medicine, Duesseldorf University, 40001 Duesseldorf, Germany

It has been shown that short (< 1µs) CO₂ laser pulses at λ = 9.6 µm in combination with an air-water spray provide clean incision of bone tissue with minimal thermal side-effects. Application of few pulses of the CO₂ laser with TEM₀₀ beam profile produces a gaussian cut profile, while longer irradiation causes a wedge-shaped cut profile. With such a profile the cut depth is limited to a few mm, probably caused by energy loss at the cut surface. This conclusion is confirmed by a simple analytical model and by results of numerical simulations, which will be compared with experimental data. A special laser scan technique, that allows the production of different cut shapes and practically arbitrary cut depth will be discussed.