Question:
I'm a doc who uses a lot of lasers for tattoo and pigmented lesion removal.
Particularly tattoos. Used to be a physicist. The machines we use for
tattoo removal run about 5-10 watts output at from 690- 1064 nM. I.e.,
rubies to YAGs, with Alexandrites ( 750 nm ) in between.
The absorbtion spectrum of the chromophore we're zapping ( melanin in india
ink ) is so broad that just about wavelength will do, as long as it is away
from some other skin chromophores around 585 or less. Also the light does not
have to be particularly monochromatic and\ or coherent. However, it helps
if it is pulsed at less than about 1 msec, the thermal relaxation time of
skin.
Anyway, the machines we use run about $100K. They also heat up the
office a bunch. This cost means that I gotta charge my patients a lot.
Recently, it has been broght to my attention that diode lasers in the far
red/near infared are getting up there in power. I would appreciate any
information on these, since they should be a lot cheaper.
Answer:
-SDL is one of several companies that offer fiber-coupled high power
laser diode arrays. We have one model that produces 10 W cw out of a 400
micron pigtail. wavelength in the 800 nm range. SDL is in San Jose CA, USA
phone 408-943-9411. Please consult the Laser Focus World buyers guide
for a more complete listing of manufactures. Mention of specific
products does not imply endorsement by the US gov't... Opinions expressed
are my own... any other disclaimers also apply..
-We are using an Optopower 60 watt CW system here for materials processing experiments.
I'm not too closely involved with the work being done, but I imagine that the
wavelength region is around 780 nm or so. The device we have (jokingly called
the Hydra) has four power units (multiple stripe, multiple cluster arrays) fiber
coupled into a combiner which in turn comes out in a single fiber bundle. Likely
to be a handy arrangement for medical work.
We use a pulser to trigger the power supply for the laser. I'm sure 1 msec would
be perfectly reasonable. As an added bonus, the system is not particularly
monochromatic and/or coherent, but it isn't too bad for an array system. The
number at Optopower is 520-746-1234.
