Laser eye surgery uses precision beam delivery to ablate or cut corneal tissue, altering the eye's focal length. Excimer lasers operating at 193 nanometers break molecular bonds with minimal thermal damage to shape the surface. Femtosecond lasers operating in the near-infrared are often used to create precise internal flaps via photodisruption before the excimer ablation.
The new femtosecond system for laser eye surgery operates at a high enough rep rate to cut the flap in under ten seconds.
Related terms
Femto
Clipped form of femtosecond, for lasers and pulses lasting from a few to a few hundred quadrillionths of a second.
Pulse duration
How long a laser pulse lasts, normally given as the full width at half maximum of its intensity.
Fluence
Pulse energy per unit area, usually in J/cm squared, the quantity that sets ablation and optical damage.