Pulsed and CW adjustable 1942 nm single-mode all-fiber Tm-doped fiber laser system for surgical laser soft tissue ablation applications

A surgical laser soft tissue ablation system based on an adjustable 1942 nm single-mode all-fiber Tm-doped fiber laser operating in pulsed or CW mode with nitrogen assistance is demonstrated. Ex vivo ablation on soft tissue targets such as muscle (chicken breast) and spinal cord (porcine) with intact dura are performed at different ablation conditions to examine the relationship between the system parameters and ablation outcomes. The maximum laser average power is 14.4 W, and its maximum peak power is 133.1 W with 21.3 mu J pulse energy. The maximum CW power density is 2.33 x 10(6) W/cm(2) and the maximum pulsed peak power density is 2.16 x 10(7) W/cm(2). The system parameters examined include the average laser power in CW or pulsed operation mode, gain-switching frequency, total ablation exposure time, and the input gas flow rate. The ablation effects were measured by microscopy and optical coherence tomography (OCT) to evaluate the ablation depth, superficial heat-affected zone diameter (HAZD) and charring diameter (CD). Our results conclude that the system parameters can be tailored to meet different clinical requirements such as ablation for soft tissue cutting or thermal coagulation for future applications of hemostasis. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America