T.V. Kononenko

Tailoring immobilization of immunoglobulin by excimer laser for biosensor applications

The sheltered transfer and immobilization of rabbit anti-human antiserum immunoglobulin G (IgG) by matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE) are reported. The iced targets submitted to laser irradiation consisted of 0.2-2 mg/mL IgG blended or not with lipid (L-α-phosphatidylcholine dipalmitoyl) dissolved in distilled water-based saline buffer. Thin IgG coatings were obtained at room temperature onto glass, fused silica, or silicon substrates. Ten thousand subsequent laser pulses of 0.33, 0.5, or 0.67 J/cm(2) fluence were applied for the synthesis of each sample. Morphology and composition of the thin films were studied by optical, scanning, and atomic force microscopy and Fourier transformed infrared spectrometry. Optical labeling methods such as spectrofluorimetry and fluorescence microscopy were selected to verify the biosensor transduction principle because of their high sensitivity for detecting low amounts of antigen (IgG). Protein immobilization to the substrate surface was demonstrated for all obtained structures after immersion in the donkey anti-rabbit secondary antibody solution. The IgG transfer and immobilization onto substrates were improved by addition of lipid to MAPLE solutions.

Heat accumulation effects in short-pulse multi-pass cutting of carbon fiber reinforced plastics

The formation of a matrix evaporation zone (MEZ) in carbon fiber reinforced plastics during multi-pass laser cutting with picosecond laser pulses is studied for a wide range of pulse frequencies (fpu2009=u200910–800u2009kHz) and feed rates (vfu2009=u20090.002–10u2009m/s). Three regimes of the formation of the MEZ are found and related with different heat accumulation effects: (i) small MEZ (<2u2009μm) with negligible heat accumulation, (ii) moderate-size MEZ (up to a few hundred microns) determined by heat accumulation between pulses, and (iii) large MEZ (up to a few millimeters) caused by heat accumulation between scans. The dependence of the size of the MEZ on the number of scans and the scan frequency was studied to distinguish the two heat accumulation effects (between pulses and between scans), which occur on different time-scales. A diagram to illustrate the boundaries between the three regimes of the formation of the MEZ as a function of feed rate and pulse frequency is proposed as a promising base for further studies and as ...

Laser-induced structure transformations of diamonds

Results are reported on the study of phase transformations in diamonds induced by nano- and picosecond pulses of KrF excimer laser (λ=248 nm) and second harmonic of a YAP:Nd laser (λ=539 nm). Main attention in the research was paid to i) laser-induced graphitization of high-quality CVD diamond plates and ii) laser-induced structure transitions in ion-implanted diamond single crystals. For CVD diamond, the thickness of the laser-graphitized surface layers was measured and the accumulation period for graphitization to occur was found to be longer for lower laser fluences. In the experiments with ion-implanted diamonds, multipulse laser irradiation at fluences lower than the graphitization thresholds resulted in progressive annealing, i.e., in an increase of the optical transmission and surface contraction. Under certain low-intensity irradiation conditions, it was also found that, competing with the annealing process, laser etching of the ion-implanted diamond occurred at extremely low rates of 10-4-10-3 nm/pulse. A correlation between the defect concentration distribution and graphitization thresholds in partially annealed ion-implanted diamonds is discussed.

Oxygen-assisted multipass cutting of carbon fiber reinforced plastics with ultra-short laser pulses

Deep multipass cutting of bidirectional and unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) with picosecond laser pulses was investigated in different static atmospheres as well as with the assistance of an oxygen or nitrogen gas flow. The ablation rate was determined as a function of the kerf depth and the resulting heat affected zone was measured. An assisting oxygen gas flow is found to significantly increase the cutting productivity, but only in deep kerfs where the diminished evaporative ablation due to the reduced laser fluence reaching the bottom of the kerf does not dominate the contribution of reactive etching anymore. Oxygen-supported cutting was shown to also solve the problem that occurs when cutting the CFRP parallel to the fiber orientation where a strong deformation and widening of the kerf, which temporarily slows down the process speed, is revealed to be typical for processing in standard air atmospheres.

Clean, cold, and liquid-free laser transfer of biomaterials

Blister-based laser induced forward transfer (BB-LIFT) is proposed as a promising tool for clean, cold and liquid-free local transfer of various organic substances. The feature of the given technique is that ejection of the material from the target results from non-destructive blistering of a thin metal film covering a transparent support. Applicability of the BB-LIFT driven by nanosecond laser pulses for micro-patterning of few organic Langmuir films was examined. Clean laser transfer with negligible material heating has been demonstrated for the nanoaggregated porphyrin films under optimized processing conditions. However, laser transfer of biopolymers, which form elastic and durable films at the target, meets essential problems and requires new solutions.

Nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond produced by femtosecond laser nanoablation technique

A strategy for nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center production in diamond under its irradiation by 266-nm femtosecond laser pulses is suggested: NV centers can be effectively and controllably created in the regime of nanoablation of a diamond surface. The NV concentration was found to increase logarithmically with the laser pulse number in the nanoablation regime, which is realized at a laser fluence ofu2009<0.6u2009J/cm2, whereas the NV formation rate was proportional to the sixth power of laser fluence. These dependencies could be explained by the photolytic mechanism of vacancy formation on the diamond surface and their subsequent laser-stimulated diffusion in the bulk. The femtosecond laser nanoablation of the diamond surface was demonstrated to be a promising tool to produce the requisite number of vacancies near the diamond surface and, hence, to manage the formation of NV complexes.

Photoinduced graphitization of diamond

The accumulative regime of diamond graphitization by a sequence of sub-threshold (for single impulse) femtosecond laser pulses has been studied. The model describing accumulative graphitization as gradual growth of graphite centers embedded into a diamond matrix is presented. The experimental data suggest that both the laser heating of these centers and the direct photodamage of the diamond lattice are involved in the process of diamond–graphite transformation.

Residual heat generated during laser processing of CFRP with picosecond laser pulses

Abstract One of the major reasons for the formation of a heat-affected zone during laser processing of carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) with repetitive picosecond (ps) laser pulses is heat accumulation. A fraction of every laser pulse is left as what we termed residual heat in the material also after the completed ablation process and leads to a gradual temperature increase in the processed workpiece. If the time between two consecutive pulses is too short to allow for a sufficient cooling of the material in the interaction zone, the resulting temperature can finally exceed a critical temperature and lead to the formation of a heat-affected zone. This accumulation effect depends on the amount of energy per laser pulse that is left in the material as residual heat. Which fraction of the incident pulse energy is left as residual heat in the workpiece depends on the laser and process parameters, the material properties, and the geometry of the interaction zone, but the influence of the individual quantities at the present state of knowledge is not known precisely due to the lack of comprehensive theoretical models. With the present study, we, therefore, experimentally determined the amount of residual heat by means of calorimetry. We investigated the dependence of the residual heat on the fluence, the pulse overlap, and the depth of laser-generated grooves in CRFP. As expected, the residual heat was found to increase with increasing groove depth. This increase occurs due to an indirect heating of the kerf walls by the ablation plasma and the change in the absorbed laser fluence caused by the altered geometry of the generated structures.