Effects of transient local heating of spatially and spectrally heterogeneous biotissue by short laser pulses

Summary A new laser method for the spectroscopy of locally absorbing microvolumes much smaller than the radiation wavelength in size is discussed. Such an absorption is characteristic of biotissues and other biological media. The method allows data to be obtained on the size of local microvolumes absorbing at the radiation wavelength. It is based on the possibility of transient overheating of the microvolumes by means of an ultrashort pulse with a duration much shorter than the time it takes to heat to diffuse from the microvolumes. The pulse-heated microvolumes must have an altered refractive index leading to an additional scatter of another probe laser pulse, that is made to irradiate the medium under study after some delay. Besides, the locally heated microvolumes will have temperature-altered fluorescence induced either by the heating laser pulse or by an additional probe pulse at another wavelength more suitable for fluorescence excitation. Due to the relevance of its scientific content, this paper has been given priority by the Journal Direction.