Optical coherence tomography controlled femtosecond laser microsurgery system

Abstract

Due to nonlinear interaction with optical transparent samples the femtosecond technology is a very useful tool for high precision micro surgery on biological tissues. At the same time femtosecond lasers are ideal light sources for imaging methods such as optical coherence tomography (OCT) due to the broad spectrum of the laser, which is necessary for creating ultra short pulses. Using OCT structures within biological tissues can be imaged non invasive with a resolution within the low μm-range. The combined use of an ultra short pulse laser for cutting of biological tissues as well as imaging via OCT is a very interesting tool. It opens up a wide range of new surgery techniques and improves many existing methods due to high precision and high flexibility of the cutting process. Therefore we combined a femtosecond cutting system and a fourier domain OCT. In a first attempt the OCT is driven with an SLD and is used alternately to the cutting system. The OCT is integrated into the optical path which enables in situ imaging of the surgery area.