Effect of therapeutic femtosecond laser pulse energy, repetition rate, and numerical aperture on laser-induced second and third harmonic generation in corneal tissue.

Clinical therapy incorporating femtosecond laser (FSL) devices is a quickly growing field in modern biomedical technology due to their precision and ability to generate therapeutic effects with substantially less laser pulse energy. FSLs have the potential to produce nonlinear optical effects such as harmonic generation (HG), especially in tissues with significant nonlinear susceptibilities such as the cornea. HG in corneal tissue has been demonstrated in nonlinear harmonic microscopy using low-power FSLs. Furthermore, the wavelength ranges of harmonic spectral emissions generated in corneal tissues are known to be phototoxic above certain intensities. We have investigated how the critical FSL parameters pulse energy, pulse repetition rate, and numerical aperture influence both second (SHG) and third harmonic generation (THG) in corneal tissue. Experimental results demonstrated corresponding increases in HG intensity with increasing repetition rate and numerical aperture. HG duration decreased with increasing repetition rate and pulse energy. The data also demonstrated a significant difference in HG between FSL parameters representing the two most common classes of FSL therapeutic devices.

Evaluation of broadband spectral transmission characteristics of fresh and gamma-irradiated corneal tissues.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clarity of gamma-irradiated sterile corneal donor lenticules. METHODS: Broadband UV, visible, and near-infrared (200-850 nm) light transmission was measured through gamma-irradiated, sterile partial-thickness, and full-thickness donor lenticules and fresh corneal tissues and compared with standard acrylic intraocular lens (IOL) implants using a conventional spectrophotometer technique. RESULTS: All tissues had high light transmission (≥ 90%) in the visible and near-infrared regions and very low (<2%) transmission below 290 nm. Differences in light transmission between irradiated and fresh cornea types were observed between 300 and 450 nm, which mirrored differences in light transmission through their respective storage solutions. Light transmission through partial-thickness irradiated donor lenticules was greatest across all wavelengths. All corneal tissues exhibited higher transmission than acrylic IOL implant across all wavelengths. CONCLUSIONS: Gamma-irradiated donor lenticules are comparable with fresh corneas regarding light transmission, with both partial-thickness and full-thickness lenticules having greater transmission than standard IOL. We would expect the optical performance of gamma-irradiated donor lenticules to be comparable to fresh cornea if used for lamellar corneal procedures that do not require a viable endothelium.

Accurate in situ measurement of complex refractive index and particle size in intralipid emulsions.

A first accurate measurement of the complex refractive index in an intralipid emulsion is demonstrated, and thereby the average scatterer particle size using standard Mie scattering calculations is extracted. Our method is based on measurement and modeling of the reflectance of a divergent laser beam from the sample surface. In the absence of any definitive reference data for the complex refractive index or particle size in highly turbid intralipid emulsions, we base our claim of accuracy on the fact that our work offers several critically important advantages over previously reported attempts. First, our measurements are in situ in the sense that they do not require any sample dilution, thus eliminating dilution errors. Second, our theoretical model does not employ any fitting parameters other than the two quantities we seek to determine, i.e., the real and imaginary parts of the refractive index, thus eliminating ambiguities arising from multiple extraneous fitting parameters. Third, we fit the entire reflectance-versus-incident-angle data curve instead of focusing on only the critical angle region, which is just a small subset of the data. Finally, despite our use of highly scattering opaque samples, our experiment uniquely satisfies a key assumption behind the Mie scattering formalism, namely, no multiple scattering occurs. Further proof of our method's validity is given by the fact that our measured particle size finds good agreement with the value obtained by dynamic light scattering.