Premium
Dynamics of shock waves and cavitation bubbles generated by picosecond laser pulses in corneal tissue and water
Author(s) -
Juhasz Tibor,
Hu Xin H.,
Turi Laszlo,
Bor Zsolt
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
lasers in surgery and medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1096-9101
pISSN - 0196-8092
DOI - 10.1002/lsm.1900150112
Subject(s) - cavitation , shock wave , picosecond , laser , shock (circulatory) , materials science , ablation , optics , cornea , thermal shock , bubble , pulse (music) , dynamics (music) , flash (photography) , mechanics , composite material , acoustics , physics , medicine , engineering , detector , aerospace engineering
Time‐resolved flash photography was used to investigate the dynamics of shock waves and cavitation bubbles generated by picosecond optical breakdown in bovine corneal tissue and water. A picosecond Nd:YLF laser was employed. A rapid decay of the shock waves was observed in both materials, with similar temporal characteristics, indicating that water serves as a good model for shock wave studies. In contrast, differences in the cavitation bubble dynamics were found between cornea and water, which are related to differences in the mechanical and thermal properties of the two media, suggesting that water should not be used to model cavitation dynamics in cornea. The experimental results also suggest that the efficiency of intrastromal ablation may be increased by using short pulses and moderate pulse energies in order to avoid the creation of large cavitation bubbles. The experiment indicates that the optimum laser repetition rate for intrastromal ablation is between 1 and 5 kHz. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.