RESUMO
A cw argon laser operating at the multiline UV TEM00 mode was used to create lesions in the nucleoli of fibroblast cells. Laser powers emitted through the objective were varied from 5-8 mW and laser pulse durations ranged from 50 to 600 ms. Our study showed lesion diameters ranging from 0.7 microns to 2.9 microns and an average lesion diameter of 1.77 microns. All cells were exposed to at most a laser spotsize of 2.2 microns diameter and for a laser spotsize of this diameter, we calculated that the central 18.3% of the total energy was in the central area of 0.7 microns diameter. We also found that as little as 0.3 mJ of energy could produce a lesion. No absolute threshold correlation was found between the size or type of lesion and the laser parameters used.
