Stimulating retinal cell by using short pulsed and high power laser will introduce photodisruption phenomena.

Photodisruption phenomena is a phenomena where a material, either it is in the form of solid, liquid, or gas, get a great amount of energy in a very short duration that causes it to form a plasma within the material. Since it is very short duration, the plasma formation then is followed by mechanical effects such as shock wave and cavitation. These mechanical effects cause the damage to the cell and therefore, the parameter chosen for the laser (such as wavelength, energy, pulsed, focal angle, and repetition rate) should be able to avoid the damaged caused by these effects.

Figure 1. Wavelength dependence of the direct transmission to the back of the eye (smooth curve), transmission of pure water to the back of the eye (dashed curve), absorption of melanin in the retinal pigment epithelium (doted curve). [3]

The figure above shows the plot of the transmission of light with various wavelengths into the eye. From the graph, we can see that the best wavelength is in the range between 800 nm and 1150 nm because the refractive media transmit the laser light well and absorption by the melanin in the RPE is low (therefore the retinal damage is low) [3]. Additionally, the wavelength is also invisible to the patient and hence will not dazzle the eye. When introducing a very high energy density within a very short time into the water, temperature and pressure rise rapidly to very high values which lead to the formation of plasmas. The expansion of the plasma then leads to the production of shock waves and then the creation of a cavitation bubble. Since the energy of the laser is absorbed by the plasma for creating the shockwave and the cavitation bubble, then the energy which is in the form of the shockwave and the cavitation bubble (plus the dissipation energy during the oscillation of the bubble such as viscous damping, acoustic emission, heat conduction, and the viscosity surrounding the fluid [3]) might also describe the energy contained in the laser. In the 1

application of photodisruption phenomena in stimulating retinal cell, the risen of the temperature and the pressure would be the stimulating agents. Therefore, in this summary, in order to estimate the energy needed of the laser for stimulating the retinal cell without causing damage, it will be analyzed through the pressure caused by the shock wave and the cavitation effects and also the energy contained in the shock wave. The analyzes are done by comparing experiments in some related papers which might give good approaches. And then, if possible, the general relationship between the energy of the laser, pulse duration, irradiance, repetition rate of the laser, and the resulting mechanical effect should be derived. Shock wave Pressures resulted from the shock wave will cause the displacement of tissues [3]. Therefore, it is needed to know the possible range which can be affected by the shock wave pressure. The pressure of the shock wave will rapidly decay with distance. For spherical shock waves, the pressure drop is determined by the geometric decrease in the pressure amplitude, energy dissipation in the shock wave, and the increase in the shock wave duration [3]. The energy and the pressure of the shock wave will be observed by comparing the use of nanosecond, picoseconds, and femtosecond pulsed laser from several related papers and or dissertation. 1. Source: Optical Breakdown in Water and Ocular Media and Its use for Intraocular Photodisruption [3] Experimental setup: ND:YAG Laser pulse: 6 ns with energies 1 mJ and 10 mJ and focal angle of 22o. 30 ps with energies 50 J and 1 mJ and focal angle of 14o. Wavelength : 1064 nm Energy threshold for plasma production : 7J for ps-pulses and 150 J for ns-pulses Spot diameter: 5.8 m for ps-pulses and 7.6 m for ns-pulses The measurements conducted in the experiment for calculating the energy of the shock wave are measured by summing the dissipated energy and the energy remaining in the far field. The dissipated energy is defined as the total energy deposited as a spherical shock wave moves from r0 to r1. The total energy of the shock wave is said to almost have the same value with the dissipated energy since a large part of the energy will be dissipated in the vicinity of the plasma and hence, the dissipation energy can be used for estimating the lower bound of the energy content of the plasma. :

Where (r) is defined as the specific internal energy per unit mass of fluid as a shock front passes to the pressure jump p0 to ps and the density jump from 0 to s :

The pressure ps and the density s can be obtained experimentaly from the measurement of the shock wave velocity vs and then using the formula:

The value of 0 is equal to the density of water : 998 kg/m3. While the experimental data for the shock velocity vs is served as the following graph:

Figure 2. Experimentally deterimined velocities of the shock wave vs , bubble wall vB, and particles vP behind the shock front, as a function of the time. The laser parameters are : (a) 30 ps, 50 J; (b) 30 ps, 1 mJ; (c) 6 ns, 1 mJ; (d) 6 ns, 10 mJ.

The speed of the particle from figure 2 above is determined by using the following formula:

Where c1 = 5190 m/s, c2 = 25306 m/s, c0 = normal sound speed in water = 1483 m/s The velocity graph in figure 2 above is derived from taking the slope of the distance curve from the shock front and the bubble wall to the optical axis which is described by the following graph below:

Figure 3. Time evolution of the distance from the shock front and bubble wall to the optical axis after 10 mJ 6ns pulse laser.

The r(t) data for the other laser parameter are the same and are not shown in this dissertation. The distance data are taken experimentaly by taking photograph of shock wave and the bubble cavitation. The dissipated energy is then described by the following graph:

Figure 4. The cumulative energy loss Ediss at the shock front as a function of the distance r travelled by the shock.

The energy remaining in the far field is obtained by the measurement of the pressure of the shockwave by using means of hydrophone (tranducer which can convert pressure signal into electrical signal) at a distance of 10 mm from the center of the shock wave. And then, from that measurement, the energy of the far field can be calculated by using formula (similarity theorem) [still dont know how to use this theorem though]:

The data of the pressure got from the hydrophone is:

Figure 5. Hydrophone signal obtained a distance of 10 mm from the shock wave center. The corresponding laser pulse lengths are (a) 30 ps, 50 J; (b) 30 ps, 1 mJ; (c) 6 ns, 1 mJ; (d) 6 ns, 10 mJ.

After obtaining that data, then the data for the shock wave energy at a distance 10 mm (far field energy) is served from the following table:

Table 1. Shock wave energy in the vicinity of plasma and at a distance of 10 mm from the center of the shock wave. The data on the laser pulse energy refer to the energy incident in front of the cell and the energy absorbed at the laser focus (in parentheses). The value in the parenthesis is calculated from the plasma transmission data considering the absorption and reflection losses along the optical path to the laser focus.

From the table 1 above, it can be observed that the energy of the shock wave for ps pulses are 39.6% for 50 J and 46.6% for 1mJ. While for ns-pulses, 64.4% for 1 mJ and 71% for 10 mJ. The conclusion is the higher the energy of the laser, the higher the energy of the shock wave and the shorter the pulse of the laser in ns and ps pulses, the lessen the energy of the shock wave. For experimental data of the pressure of the shock wave is as the following graph:

Figure 6. Experimentally determined near field shock pressure p s(r) after (a) 30 ps pulses of 50 J and 1 mJ; (b) 6 ns pulses of 1 mJ and 10 mJ.

The graph from figure 6 above is derived from equation:

Where p0 = 100 kPa and vs is the shock velocities from figure 2. From the graph in figure 6 above, it can be concluded that for ns and ps-pulses, the pressure increases with rising pulse energy. And its also observed that the pressure resulted by ns-pulses is bigger that of the ps-pulses. 2. Source: Time-Resolved Observations of Shock Waves and Cavitation Bubbles Generated by Femtosecond Laser Pulses in Corneal Tissue and Water [4]. Experimental Setup: Laser source: femtosecond laser pulse with 150 fs duration at wavelength 620 nm and pulse energy 3J Threshold fluence in cornea and tap water : 1.3 J/cm2 and 0.87 J/cm2 respectively The Shock wave radius from this experiment as a function of time in bovine cornea and in water is described as the graph below:

Figure 7. The Shock wave radius as a function of time in bovine cornea (open circles with laser fluences 2 2 15 J/cm ) and in water (filled circles with laser fluences 9J/cm )

The Pressure of the shock wave is determined from the expression: 8

Where C = fitting parameter (2.7 x 10-5 m4/s2) r = radius of the shock wave as described from figure 7 B = 2.07 o = density of water = 998 kg/m2. The resulting curve of the pressure is then:

Figure 8. The shock wave pressure as a function of the shock wave radius (solid curve) in water generated by the laser with fluence 9 J/cm2. From the graph in figure 8 above, it is observed that the pressure of the shock wave at the closest observable point to the optical breakdown is about 8 x 108 Pa. And the Pressure goes to zero within a radius about 20 m away from the optical breakdown. Conclusion for the shock wave effect between nano, pico, and femto pulse laser: the femto second laser give the best approach among of all. References. 1. Ana P. Keef. 2007. Comparison between Infrared and Electrical Nerve Stimulation. IEEE Journal 2. Jonathon Wells, et.al. 2005. Optical Stimulation of Neural Tissue in Vivo. Optics Letter vol 30, no. 5 3. Alfred Vogel. 2000. Optical Breakdown in Water and Ocular Media and Its Use for Intraocular Photodisruption (Dissertation. Medical University of Lubeck, Germany.

4. Tibor Juhasz, et al. 1996. Time-Resolved Observations of Shock Waves and Cavitation Bubbles Generated by Femtosecond Laser Pulse in Corneal Tissue and Water. Laserr in Surgery and Medicine 19:23-31

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