We evaluate the ablation thresholds of Er:YAG and Er,Cr:YSGG laser for enamel and dentin. A total of 140 dental slices is evenly divided into two groups: the dentin group and the enamel group. Dental tissues are irradiated with either an Er:YAG laser or an Er,Cr:YSGG laser with pulse widths in the order of 100 \mu s. The laser fluence is increased gradually until the ablation crater is formed. The laser ablation threshold is calculated using probit analysis. The ablation thresholds of the Er:YAG laser for dentin and enamel range from 2.88 to 3.36 J/cm2 and from 2.94 to 3.8 J/cm2, respectively, and the ablation thresholds of the Er,Cr:YSGG laser for dentin and enamel range from 2.92 to 4.2 J/cm2 and from 4.93 to 5.66 J/cm2, respectively.

A finite element method computation model for analyzing optothermal interaction of polychromatic light and biology tissue is proposed and proven by experiment. A continuous xenon lamp is employed as an example. First, the spectral energy distribution of the xenon lamp is measured and found to be equivalent to a series of quasi-chromatic light with different central wavelengths, different energies, and certain bandwidth. Next, according to the reported thermal and optical parameters of porcine skin and porcine liver, the temporal temperature distributions of these tissues irradiated by each quasi-chromatic light are simulated. Then, the thermal effect is superimposed to obtain the whole optothermal temporal temperature distribution. Moreover, the optothermal response experiments of fresh porcine skin and porcine liver tissues irradiated by continuous xenon lamp are carried out. The results of the simulation and experiment are analyzed and compared, and are found to be commendably matched.

The feasibility of fenestration operation in middle ear bone with pulsed infrared laser is evaluated. Healthy male New Zealand rabbits in vivo are used in the experiment. Middle ear mastoid bone of animal model is completely exposed with conventional methods, and then a pulsed CO<sub>2</sub> laser (10.6 \mu m) and an Er:YAG laser (2.94 \mu m) are used to perform the fenestration operation. Diamond drill is also used as a control group. The total operation time and light irradiation time are recorded and the opening efficiency is assessed. The morphological changes and thermal damage around the opening window on the middle ear bone are examined. It is shown that both laser systems are suitable for the fenestration operation in middle ear bone, and this no-touch technique has a lot of benefits compared with traditional methods. The bleeding during operation has an important effect on operation time and thermal injury and needs to be controlled efficiently in further study.

The influence of scanning speed on hard bone tissue ablation is studied with a 10.6-\mum laser. The groove morphology and the thermal damage created in bovine shank bone by pulsed CO2 laser are examined as a function of incident fluence by optical microscope following standard histological processing. The results show that ablation groove width, depth and ablation volume, as well as the zone of thermal injury, increase gradually with incident fluence. As compared to the result for high scanning speed, the lower scanning speed always produces larger ablation volume but thicker zone of thermal injury. It is evident that scanning speed plays an important role in the ablation process. In clinical applications, it is important to select appropriate scanning speed to obtain both high ablation rates and minimal thermal injury.

The feasibility of measuring crater geometries by use of optical coherence tomography (OCT) is examined. Bovine shank bone on a motorized translation stage with a motion velocity of 3 mm/s is ablated with a pulsed CO2 laser in vitro. The laser pulse repetition rate is 60 Hz and the spot size on the tissue surface is 0.5 mm. Crater geometries are evaluated immediately by both OCT and histology methods after laser irradiation. The results reveal that OCT is capable of measuring crater geometries rapidly and noninvasively as compared to histology. There are good correlation and agreement between crater depth estimates obtained by two techniques, whereas there exists distinct difference between crater width estimates when the carbonization at the sides of craters is not removed.

Pulsed laser ablation of soft biological tissue was studied at 10.6-, 2.94-, and 2.08-micron wavelengths. The ablation effects were assessed by means of optical microscope, the ablation crater depths were measured with reading microscope. It was shown that Er:YAG laser produced the highest quality ablation with clear, sharp cuts following closely the spatial contour of the incident beam and the lowest fluence threshold. The pulsed CO2 laser presented the moderate quality ablation with the highest ablation efficiency. The craters drilled with Ho:YAG laser were generally larger than the incident laser beam spot, irregular in shape, and clearly dependent on the local morphology of biotissue. The ablation characteristics, including fluence threshold and ablation efficiency, varied substantially with wavelength. It is not evident that water is the only dominant chromophore in tissue.

The ablation theory of cornea and biology effect by 193-nm ArF excimer laser are introduced. The ablation tracks model is put forward to make laser spots scan around cornea by many steps and many areas to change cornea curvature. The corneal average ablation curve is calculated by software so as to explain the feasibility of the ablation tracks model. By analyzing the actual ablation shapes of many arbitrary cornea sections, the optimal ablation method for deciding the random position of every laser spot in every ablation track is obtained. Experiments combining the ablation model with the device testify the energy stability of laser spots and the accuracy of rectifying anisometropia.