Cavitation Bubble Dynamics during Thulium Fiber Laser Lithotripsy

摘要

The Thulium fiber laser (TFL) is being explored for lithotripsy. TFL parameters differ from standard Holmium:YAG laser in several ways, including smaller fiber delivery, more strongly absorbed wavelength, low pulse energy/high pulse rate operation, and more uniform temporal pulse structure. High speed imaging of cavitation bubbles was performed at 105,000 fps and 10 μm spatial resolution to determine influence of these laser parameters on bubble formation. TFL was operated at 1908 nm with pulse energies of 5-75 mJ, and pulse durations of 200-1000 μs, delivered through 100-nm-core fiber. Cavitation bubble dynamics using Holmium laser at 2100 nm with pulse energies of 200-1000 mJ and pulse duration of 350 μs was studied, for comparison. A single, 500 μs TFL pulse produced a bubble stream extending 1090 ± 110 μm from fiber tip, and maximum bubble diameters averaged 590 ± 20 μm (n=4). These observations are consistent with previous studies which reported TFL ablation stallout at working distances ＞1.0 mm. TFL bubble dimensions were five times smaller than for Holmium laser due to lower pulse energy, higher water absorption coefficient, and smaller fiber diameter used.