ULTRAFAST LASERS: Femtosecond pulses permit surgery within cells

摘要

Just as the focused beam of an ultrafast laser can create or alter micron-scale features in transparent inorganic materials such as glass, it can be used to microscopically modify transparent organic materials as well. In both cases, the brevity of the pulse causes ablation or dissociation of a material on a time scale short enough that thermal effects in the surrounding material are minimized. In the case of organic substances, this is especially important if microsurgery, rather than a cooked specimen, is the intended result.