Effective removal of adhering cells via ultrashort laser pulses

A technique for accurately and effectively removing adhering red blood cells in a blood plasma thin film via a picosecond pulsed laser was developed. The laser beam was focused to the surface of the film to generate plasma-mediated ablation and an automated stage was employed for raster scan. The SEM images showed that the red blood cells distributed in the ablation scanned area were removed neatly, leaving the surroundings and the film base intact. For cells across the boundary between the ablated and untreated areas, a trim cutting interface was observed. Complete ablation of red blood cells in the target area is achieved without visible thermal and collateral damage in the remaining structure. The removal method is very effective because it is not necessary to selectively focus a laser beam on individual target cells and remove cells one by one. The ablation is scanned over a certain size of area, enabling practical cell killing or microbial decontamination in clinical/industrial scale.     

Microablation with ultrashort laser pulses

This paper reports the micromachining results of different materials (Al, Si, InP and fused silica) using a Ti : sapphire laser at the wavelength of 800 and 267 nm with variable pulse lengths in the range from 100 fs to 10 ps. The hole arrays with a diameter up to a few μm through microdrilling are presented. We discussed how an effective suppression of the thermal diffusion inside the ablated materials and an effective microablation could be realized. If the laser fluence is taken only slightly above the threshold, a hole array can be drilled with diameters even smaller than the wavelength of the laser. Some examples are presented in the paper.     

Micromachining of quartz with ultrashort laser pulses

Received: 6 January 1997/Accepted: 1 April 1997     

Measurement of ultrashort laser pulses

A proposal for measuring the pulse shape of ultrashort laser pulses is described. The proposed method consists of a Gamo triple intensity-interferometer to measure the triple-correlation function of the light pulses. A subsequent signal processing algorithm is used to reconstruct the true shape of the light pulses out of their triple-correlation function. The suggested method is quite insensitive to noise, as shown by means of computer simulations.     

Calculus removal on a root cement surface by ultrashort laser pulses

Ultrashort-pulse-laser ablation of dental calculus (tartar) and cement is performed on root surfaces. The investigation shows that the threshold fluence for ablation of calculus is a factor of two to three times smaller than that of a healthy root cement surface. This indicates that ultrashort laser pulses may provide an appropriate tool for selective removal of calculus with minimal damage to the underlying root cement. Future application of an in situ profiling technique allows convenient on-line monitoring of the ablation process.     

Vortices in ultrashort laser pulses

The propagation of optical vortices nested in broadband femtosecond laser beams was studied both numerically and experimentally. Based on the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, the dynamics of different multiple-vortex configurations with varying topological charge were modelled in self-focussing and self-defocussing Kerr media. We find a similar behavior in both cases regarding the vortex–vortex interaction. However, the collapsing background beam alters the propagation for a positive nonlinearity. Regimes of regular and possibly stable multiple filamentation were identified this way. Experiments include measurements on pairs of filaments generated in a vortex beam on an astigmatic Gaussian background with argon gas as the nonlinear medium. Spectral broadening of these filaments leads to a supercontinuum which spans from the visible range into the infrared. Recompression yields <19 fs pulses. Further optimization may lead to much better recompression.     

Photoionization of helium with ultrashort XUV laser pulses

Coupled-channel calculations for multiphoton ionization probabilities of helium through interaction with intensive short laser pulses are presented. Besides Slater-like orbitals we use regular Coulomb wavepackets in our configurational interaction basis to describe the continuum. Linearly polarized laser pulses of 3.8 fs duration and 2.96 x 10¹⁴ Wcm^-2 peak intensity have been used for frequencies between 0.2-1.2 a.u. The results are compared with other ab initio calculations.Received: 8 April 2003, Published online: 9 September 2003PACS: 32.80.Fb Photoionization of atoms and ions - 32.80.Wr Other multiphoton processes     

Molecular wakes for ultrashort laser pulses

The molecular wake-assisted interaction between two collinear femotosecond laser pulses is investigated in air,which leads to the generation of a controllable 1.8 mJ super-continuum pulse with an elongated self-guided channel due to the cross-phase modulation of the impulsively aligned diatomic molecules in air. For two parallel launched femtosecond laser pulses with a certain spatial separation,controllable attraction and repulsion of the pulses are observed due to the counter-balance among molecular wakes,Kerr and plasma effects,where the molecular wakes show a longer interaction distance than the others to control the propagation of the intense ultrashort laser pulses.     

超短超强激光与液体的相互作用研究

超短超强激光与液体靶相互作用时表现出许多有趣的特点，这明显区别于激光脉冲与固体或气体靶的相互作用情况．文章分别介绍了激光诱发等离子体所产生的高压冲击波、激光空泡、X射线、高能超热电子以及白光，对它们的产生机制及其各自的显著特征进行了综合描述．文章最后对超短超强激光脉冲与各种不同形态的液体靶相互作用的应用前景作了简单介绍。     

X-ray spectra of plasmas created with ultrashort laser pulses

The results are presented on the observation of X-ray spectra of plasmas formed by 250-psec laser pulses focusing on Ti, Fe and Cr targets. Specific characteristics of the spectra obtained are explained on the basis of a transient heating model.     

Automated spatiotemporal diffraction of ultrashort laser pulses

We exploit the close similarities between time-frequency and position-wave-vector correspondences to control the spatiotemporal diffraction pattern of ultrashort laser pulses. This approach permits novel, automated generation of sophisticated two-dimensional femtosecond waveforms. A two-dimensional space-time version of a Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm is used to iteratively determine the phase pattern in position-frequency space that produces a user-defined intensity profile in wave-vector-time space.     

Experimental study of optical gas-dynamic processes of polymeric material ablation by ultrashort laser pulses

Optical gas-dynamic processes occurring in polymeric targets ((CH₂O) _n , (C₂F₄) _n ) exposed to ultrashort laser pulses (τ _0.5 ∼ 45 − 70 fs; λ _I,II,III = 266, 400, 800 nm; and E/S ∼ 0.1 − 40 J/cm² at r ₀ ∼ 20 μm) were studied under normal conditions and in vacuum (p ∼ 10⁻² Pa). The dynamics of the mass flow from the target surface (m′ ∼ 10⁻⁵ − 10⁻⁴ g/J) was studied and the spectral-energy thresholds of laser ablation, the electron density distribution (n _e ∼ 10¹⁴ − 10¹⁸ cm⁻³), the mass-averaged velocity of the material flow from the target surface (∼ 10³ m/s), and the chemical composition and average temperature in the near-surface plasma formation (T ∼ 5000 K) were determined using interference microscopy, emission spectroscopy, and shadowgraphy.     

Real-time chirp diagnostic for ultrashort laser pulses

Using a real-time Fourier-transform algorithm, we present a simple technique for measuring the chirp of femtosecond laser pulses. We demonstrate significantly enhanced sensitivity compared with standard autocorrelation measurements.     

Hybrid optics for focusing ultrashort laser pulses

We present a specially designed hybrid optics comprising refraction and diffraction effects for tight spatial and temporal focusing of ultrashort laser pulses. Both aims can be put into practice by having a high numerical aperture (NA=0.45) and low internal dispersion at the same time. We are presenting what we believe is the first experimental realization of such a hybrid short plus focusing optics. The focusing properties are compared with a commonly used microscope objective (20 X, NA = 0.45) in theory and experimentally.     

Measurements of multiphoton ionization coefficients with ultrashort ultraviolet laser pulses

Multiphoton ionization coefficients of atmospheric gases were measured with ultrashort ultraviolet laser pulses. The values were obtained using two different experimental setups and the pressure range covered four orders of magnitude. The coefficients were pressure-independent and consistent with numbers predicted by the nonresonant Keldysh theory. Received: 13 June 2000 / Revised version: 5 October 2000 / Published online: 7 February 2001     

The processes of formation of ultrashort laser pulses

This paper describes and reviews experimental results on both the processes involved in the establishment of ultrashort light pulses during their build-up from noise and in their subsequent growth and narrowing. Schemes for the improvement of the USP train are suggested.     

Controlling Rydberg excitation process with shaped intense ultrashort laser pulses

We perform a theoretical investigation on the control over the atomic excitation of Rydberg states with shaped intense ultrashort laser pulses. By numerically solving the time-dependent Schr?dinger equation(TDSE), we systematically study the dependence of the population of the Rydberg states on the π phase step position in the frequency spectra of the laser pulse for different intensities, central wavelengths and pulse durations. Our results show that the Rydberg excitation process can be effectively modulated using shaped intense laser pulses with the laser intensity as high as 1 × 10~(14) W/cm~2. Our work also have benefit to the future investigation to find out the dominant mechanism behind the excitation of Rydberg states in strong laser fields.     

超短脉冲激光场中间二氯苯的激发态动力学

利用飞秒时间分辨的飞行时间质谱技术研究了间二氯苯的激发态动力学.间二氯苯分子吸收一个200 nm或者267 nm的光子被抽运到激发态,随后再吸收多个800 nm的光子被电离.实验获得了电离产生的离子质谱信号及其随抽运探测激光延迟时间的变化曲线.在200 nm时,分子被抽运到激发态(π,π*),可观察到三个相互竞争的解离通道的寿命:内转换到排斥态(n,σ*)或者(π,σ*)并发生快速解离,其寿命约(0.15±0.01)ps;内转换到基态的高振动态,能量在基态"热"振动态间弛豫的寿命约为(4.94±0.08)ps;系间窜越到相邻的三重态从而发生预解离过程,其寿命约为(110.09±4.33)ps.在267 nm时,分子被抽运到第一激发态的低振动态,可观察到一个长寿命(约(1.06±0.05)ns)的系间窜越过程.除此之外,在碎片离子信号中还观察到了激发态与基态的高振动态之间的内转换过程.