Junsheng Cao

Closure of skin incisions by laser-welding with a combination of two near-infrared diode lasers: preliminary study for determination of optimal parameters

Laser welding has the potential to become an effective method for wound closure and healing without sutures. Closure of skin incisions by laser welding with a combination of two near-infrared lasers (980 and 1064 nm), was performed for the first time in this study. One centimeter long, full-thickness incisions were made on the Wistar rats dorsal skin. The efficiencies of laser-welding with different parameters were investigated. Incision-healing, histology examination, and a tensile strength test of incisions were recorded. Laser welding with the irradiance level of 15.9 W∕cm(2) for both 980 and 1064-nm lasers and exposure time of 5 s per spot in continuous wave mode yielded a more effective closure and healing with minimal thermal damage, faster recovery, and stronger apposition in comparison with a suturing technique. The conclusion is that skin welding with a combination of two near-infrared diode lasers can be a good candidate for incision closure, and further investigations are in progress for clinical use.

Hundred-watt diode laser source by spectral beam combining

A diode laser source with a continuous wavelength (CW) power of 106 W and the beam quality M-2 of 14.6 is demonstrated by spectrum beam combining (SBC) of three 800 nm LDAs. With the help of relay optics, a wavelength interval of 0.21 nm and a whole spectrum span of 13.9 nm are achieved, which is almost 10 times narrower than those of the structure without the relay optics. This presents a method to obtain a high power and high beam quality SBC laser source with a narrow spectrum.