Femtosecond
A femtosecond is a unit of time, equal to one billionth of one millionth of a second, or 10−15 seconds. The pigments in your eye take 200 femtoseconds to react to light.
Femtosecond lasers
At present, the shortest visible and infrared laser pulses are measured in femtoseconds.
- These femtosecond lasers are used in ultrafast physics as researched by the Femtosecond Research Centre
- Using such lasers, scientists can find out what happens in very fast physical, chemical and biological processes, such as those that take place in the inner shells of atoms.
- Some technical details about femtosecond lasers can be found in this encyclopaedia article
- Femtosecond lasers have been used for research on natural regeneration
Femtosecond lasers and the eye
- New developments in femtosecond laser technology and application have enabled researchers to use them to view, instead of just cut, structures inside the eye.
- Femtosecond lasers are used in LASIK procedures using IntraLASIK technology. These differ from conventional LASIK in that the laser beam is used to create a flap in the cornea instead of the conventional blade.
- This site from USAEyes.org, a patient advocacy group, compares it with LASIK.
- At present, Intralase laser and FEMTO LDV are two major femtosecond lasers for LASIK.
