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Controlling pulse energy of an optical amplifier by controlling pump diode current Number:7,143,769 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) owispatent

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Title: Controlling pulse energy of an optical amplifier by controlling pump diode current

Abstract: The present invention includes the method of using optically-pumped optical amplifiers to remove material from a body by optical-ablation through time-compressing the amplified pulse and illuminating a portion of the body with the time-compressed optical pulse. The pulse energy of semiconductor optical amplifiers may also be adjusted by controlling the pump diode current.

Patent Number: 7,143,769 Issued on 12/05/2006 to Stoltz,   et al.

Inventors: Stoltz; Richard (Orlando, FL), Delfyett; Peter J. (Orlando, FL)
Appl. No.: 10/916,367
Filed: August 11, 2004

Current U.S. Class: 128/898 ; 359/333; 359/345; 606/10; 606/12
Current International Class: A61B 19/00 (20060101); A61B 18/18 (20060101); H01S 3/00 (20060101)
Field of Search: 606/4-12 607/88,89 128/898 372/43.01,45.013 359/333,342-349

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Primary Examiner: Farah; A.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Carr & Ferrell LLP
Parent Case Text


CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Applications, Ser. No. 60/494,275; entitled "Controlling Pulse Energy Of A Fiber Amplifier By Controlling Pump Diode Current," filed Aug. 11, 2003; and Ser. No. 60/503,578, entitled "Controlling Optically-Pumped Optical Pulse Amplifiers," filed Sep. 17, 2003.
Claims


What is claimed is:

1. A method of surgical material removal from a body by optical-ablation with controlled pulse energy, comprising the steps of: utilizing an optical oscillator in the generation of a series of wavelength-swept-with-time pulses; passing electrical current through at least one pump diode to generate pumping light; optically pumping an optical amplifier using the pumping light; amplifying the wavelength-swept-with-time pulses using the optical amplifier to produce amplified pulses; measuring an energy of the amplified pulses; controlling pump diode current in order to vary the pulse energy of amplified pulses; time-compressing the amplified pulses using a compressor to produce time-compressed amplified pulses; illuminating a portion of the body with the time-compressed amplified pulses; and using more than one optical amplifiers in a mode in which amplified pulses from a first of the optical amplifiers are delayed such that they arrive one or more nanoseconds after amplified pulses from a second of the optical amplifiers, to enable control of ablation rate independent of pulse energy.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the optical oscillator, optical amplifier and compressor are within a man-portable system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the compressor includes an air-path between gratings compressor.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the time-compressed amplified pulses have a sub-picosecond duration.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a member of the wavelength-swept-with-time pulses have a duration between 10 picoseconds and one nanosecond.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the ablation is from an outside surface of the body.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the ablation is done inside of the body.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the optical amplifier is a fiber amplifier.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the amplified pulses applied to the portion of the body have a pulse energy between 2.5 and 3.6 times an ablation threshold of the portion of the body.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the generation of a series of wavelength-swept-with-time pulses is at a fixed repetition rate.

11. A method of surgical material removal from a body by optical-ablation with controlled pulse energy, comprising the steps of: utilizing an optical oscillator in the generation of a series of wavelength-swept-with-time pulses at a fixed repetition rate; passing electrical current through or least one pump diode to generate pumping light; optically pumping an optical amplifier using the pumping light; amplifying the wavelength-swept-with-time pulses using the optical amplifier to produce amplified pulses; measuring an energy of the amplified pulses; controlling pump diode current in order to vary the pulse energy of amplified pulses; time-compressing the amplified pulses using a compressor to produce time-compressed amplified pulses; illuminating a portion of the body with the time-compressed amplified pulses; and selecting pulses from the series of wavelength-swept-with-time pulses, pulse selection being configured to be controllably varied to give a selected pulse repetition rate that is a fraction of the fixed repetition rate as a first control of ablation rate and controlling pump diode current as a second control of ablation rate, whereby ablation rate is controllable independent of pulse energy.

12. A method of material removal by optical-ablation with controlled pulse energy, comprising the steps of: utilizing an optical oscillator in the generation of a wavelength-swept-with-time pulse; passing electrical current through at least one pump diode to generate pumping light; optically pumping an optical amplifier, using the pumping light; controlling pump diode current; amplifying the wavelength-swept-with-time pulse using the optical amplifier to generate an amplified pulse; time-compressing the amplified pulse to generate a time-compressed amplified pulse; illuminating a portion of the body with the time-compressed amplified pulse, whereby controlling the pump diode current controls the pulse energy of the amplified pulse; and delivering the amplified pulse to a target in a manner such that an ablation rate of the material is independent of the pulse energy of the amplified pulse.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein a multi-position selector switch is used to select an optical-pumping-power level and the pump diode current is controlled to control optical-pumping power to that level.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein a selector switch is used to select a pump diode current level and the pump diode current is controlled to that level.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the optical amplifier is a fiber amplifier.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein an ablation rate is responsive to a first control comprising pulse selection and to a second control comprising varying the amplification of the wavelength-swept-with-time pulses by adjusting a pump diode current, whereby the ablation rate is controllable independent of pulse energy.

17. A system for material removal from a body by optical-ablation with controlled pulse energy, comprising: an optical oscillator to generate a series of wavelength-swept-with-time pulses; a pulse selector configured for selecting pulses from the series of wavelength-swept-with-time pulses for controlling ablation rate independent of the pulse energy; an optical amplifier configured for amplifying the wavelength-swept-with-time pulses to produce amplified pulses; a measurement feedback configured for measuring an energy of the amplified pulses and controlling the pulse selector; and a compressor configured for time-compressing the amplified pulses.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the ablation rate is responsive to a first control comprising the pulse selector and to a second control comprising the optical amplifier wherein amplification of the wavelength-swept-with-time pulses is variable using a pump diode current, whereby ablation rate is controllable independent of pulse energy.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the measurement feedback is used to control the pump diode current.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the pulse selector selects a fraction of a total number of the wavelength-swept-with-time pulses, the fraction being responsive to the measurement feedback.
Description


TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates in general to the field of light amplification and more particularly to ablative material removal with an optical pulse.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Ablative material removal is especially useful for medical purposes, either in-vivo or on the outside surface (e.g., skin or tooth), as it is essentially non-thermal and generally painless. Ablative removal of material is generally performed with a short optical pulse that is stretched amplified and then compressed. A number of types of laser amplifiers have been used for the amplification.

Laser machining can remove ablatively material by disassociate the surface atoms and melting the material. Laser ablation is efficiently done with a beam of short pulses (generally a pulse-duration of three picoseconds or less). Techniques for generating these ultra-short pulses are described, e.g., in a book entitled "Femtosecond Laser Pulses" (C. Rulliere--editor), published 1998, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York. Generally, large systems, such as Ti:Sapphire, are used for generating ultra-short pulses (USP).

USP phenomenon was first observed in the 1970's, when it was discovered that mode-locking a broad-spectrum laser could produce ultra-short pulses. The minimum pulse duration attainable is limited by the bandwidth of the gain medium, which is inversely proportional to this minimal or Fourier-transform-limited pulse duration. Mode-locked pulses are typically very short and will spread (i.e., undergo temporal dispersion) as they traverse any medium. Subsequent pulse-compression techniques are often used to obtain USP's. Pulse dispersion can occur within the laser cavity so that compression techniques are sometimes added intra-cavity. When high-power pulses are desired, they are intentionally lengthened before amplification to avoid internal component optical damage. This is referred to as "Chirped Pulse Amplification" (CPA). The pulse is subsequently compressed to obtain a high peak power (pulse-energy amplification and pulse-duration compression).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Ablative material removal using short optical pulse is especially useful for medical purposes and can be done either in-vivo or on the body surface. An optically-pumped optical amplifier can be used for ablation. As ablation is most efficient at about three times the material's ablation threshold, and thus control of pulse energy density is desirable. Pulse energy density can be controlled by controlling pulse energy or by controlling spot size. If the spot size is fixed or otherwise known, this can be achieved by controlling pulse energy; or if the pulse energy is known, by controlling spot size. It is preferred that ablation rate be controllable independent of pulse energy.

A novel control of pulse energy has been developed that is much more convenient than changing the ablation spot size, namely, control pulse energy. It has been found that in optically-pumped optical amplifiers, control of pulse energy of the optical amplifier can be by controlling pump diode current. The pulse energy of semiconductor optical amplifiers may be adjusted by changing the current through the amplifier diodes as either the primary control of pulse energy, or as a fine-tuning to another type of pulse energy control. Further, it is preferred that ablation rate be co


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