Varghese Babu, Turco Simona, Bonito Valentina, Verhagen Rieko
Department of Care and Health Applications, Philips Research, 5656AE, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Opt Express. 2013 Jul 29;21(15):18304-10. doi: 10.1364/OE.21.018304.
We investigated the influence of polarization and apodization on laser induced optical breakdown threshold in transparent and diffuse media using linearly and radially polarized light. We demonstrate a lower irradiance threshold for optical breakdown using radially polarized light. The dominance of radial polarization in higher-order multiphoton ionization has important medical applications where a lower irradiance threshold may allow reaching deeper layers inside the skin with less risk of collateral damage and thereby improving safety and efficacy of treatment.
