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Cut Curiously Precise Holes With Femto-Lasers

Posted by timothy on from the just-wanted-to-say-femto dept.

paymenow points out "this story at Science News Online about femto-lasers and how their novel 'cutting physics' allows much more precision than previous lasers. The technology is now finding applications in various industries including, biotech, automotive and laser eye surgery."

3 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. Pulse Speed = Nanoscale Destruction? by WeaponOfChoice · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Would increasing the pulse speed by 1kx have any effect upon the surrounding material, destructive effects that is. I realise that the pulses are fantastically short but surely going from a thousand fempto pulses a second (roughly 1 trillionth of a second on target) to a million (roughly 1 billionth of a second on target) should negate at least some of the benefits by dint of there being a shorter gap between the pulses to allow the highly ionised material to clear out. This didn't seem to be mentioned in the article so perhaps it's not an issue...

    --


    It's not that I'm Anti-American - I'm Pro-Freedom
  2. Waste Disposal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    From the description in the article, it basically
    describes the laser as an atomizer, tearing apart
    electron bonds. As technology improves, and energy
    becomes more plentiful, could this not be used to
    break waste down to it's elements, which could then
    be seperated, and recycled?

  3. Re:Cool use for diabetics and hospitals by Guppy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "There is sort of an inherent problem with that. If the hole is too small to even hit any nerve endings, it's probably too small to let blood cells through."

    Actually, the article says otherwise, in an example where the researcher actually stuck his finger in to test it out -- "As the cut in his finger deepened and he felt no discomfort, Rode became convinced. When the blood started to flow, he yanked his finger away."

    I'm guessing that what's happening here is a result of the laser's ability to cut through with no damage to the surround areas. A nerve endings that gets destroyed or vaporized sends no signal -- but normally what happens is that nearby endings get activated by the microscopic tearing and damage done on the surrounding tissue. In this case, the surrounding tissue is completely untouched, so nothing happens.