Abstract

Because of the strong water absorption near 3 µm in tissue and the consequent ultrashort penetration depths (of a few microns), compact high power (100 mW to 1 W) 2.7 µm laser sources with tem₀₀ beam quality have several important applications in ultrafine intra-ocular and endoscopic laser surgery including transmyocardial revascularization and other intra-arterial procedures¹. In such applications, laser energy absorbed by the targeted tissue is capable of its coagulation or precise ablation with minimal damage to the remaining tissue. Other applications that could benefit from compact and efficient sources of mid-IR radiation include infrared countermeasures and spectroscopic sensing.

© 1998 IEEE