The Thermal-Chemical Damage in Biological Material under Laser Irradiation

A mathematical model for thermal-chemical damage to biological materials excited by laser irradiation is described. The chemical rate equations for protein denaturization are used to predict radii of damage for cases where the input-laser-energy distribution results in the uniform heating of a small sphere or a disk. These rate equations are limited to a single-hit process. Experimental checks on this model are presented for ruby-laser irradiation of small carbon particles in egg albumin and for CO
₂
-laser surface heating of egg albumin.