Erbium laser for medical applications

YAIO/sub 3/:Er lasers are investigated, mainly with respect to their potential for medical applications. Precise cutting of tissue with laser light can best be performed at a wavelength with high absorption. In this case the absorbed energy is concentrated near the surface, and evaporation occurs at lower power levels than those obtained with larger penetration depth. With laser pulses of microsecond duration, steep temperature gradients are obtained that lead to localized heating with minimum thermal influence in neighboring tissue