ABLATION OF AN OPTICALLY HOMOGENEOUS ABSORBING MEDIUM BY SCATTERED PULSED-LASER RADIATION

We have studied the ablation of an aqueous CuCl2 solution in a pulsed Nd: YAG laser field featuring a speckle-patterned structure characteri zed by spatial radiation energy fluence fluctuations. This leads to a nonuniform distribution of the energy absorbed in the bulk of the samp le being irradiated and causes local overheating centers to form, wher ein ablation is observed to take place at laser energy fluences below the threshold value found in experiments with a homogeneous laser beam . This effect should be manifest in the laser irradiation of biotissue s which, as a rule, scatter light strongly.