Optical clearing of laser-induced tissue plasma

We studied the effect of optical clearing (OC) by glycerol on laser-induced tissue plasma using the immersion method. The results demonstrated the apparently enhanced effect of glycerol on the molecular spectra of the laser induced plasma. The OC is more sensitive to the molecular bands than atomic lines. After tissue immersion in the glycerol, the electron density of tissue plasma is decreased. The laser plasma temperature of the glycerol treated tissue is higher than for virgin fresh tissue. The tissue plasma after the glycerol application is still in the local thermal equilibrium plasma state. This work presents a new perspective for OC application that can extend from tissue better imaging quality to improvement of laser plasma generation. (letter)