Microspectroscopic analysis of collagen irradiated at 6.45 microns with the CLIO-FEL

(Wrk-P-3-04)

F. Glotin, P. Dumas, R. Prazeres, J.M. Ortega, J.L. Lefaix  

LURE, Orsay

Ablation of human tissue with an infrared laser tuned to the amide II band of proteins has proven to be especially efficient, with reduced collateral damage [1]. In a previous work [2], we have irradiated pig tissues at different frequencies with a free-electron laser, and observed the damaged area with a microspectroscope. Observation of a relative weakening of the amide II band when irradiation has occured at this wavelength confirmed that the ablation process should be enhanced due to a resonant denaturation of structural proteins.

In order to get rid of all the inhomogeneities in natural skin, making our spectroscopic map noisy, we will redo these experiments with pure collagen samples. We will also do some power dependency measurements.

Results would be available at the time of the conference.

[1] G. Edwards et al., Tissus ablation by a free-electron laser tuned to the amide II band, Nature 371 (1994) 416

[2] F. Glotin et al., Frequency dependence of the ablation of pig tissue with an IR-FEL: a microspectroscopic analysis, Proc. SPIE 3775 (1999) 113-17