Porcine cortical bone ablation by ultrashort pulsed laser irradiation

Ultrashort pulsed lasers in bone ablation show promise for many orthopedic applications. To minimize collateral tissue damage and control the ablation process, the ablation threshold fluence must be well characterized. Using an amplified femtosecond laser (170 fs, 800 nm, 1 kHz), the ablation threshold on unaltered porcine cortical bone was measured using the D(2) method at multiple incident pulse numbers ranging from 25 to 1000 pulses per …