High power 1540 nm fibre lasers for surgical applications

High power diode laser sources are increasingly being used for surgical procedures. Sources at 810 nm wavelength are commercially available; these are, however, only applicable to pigmented tissues (blood and melanin), or using a mediating carbon film in contact mode. There is an increasing interest in development of suitable sources for use with non-pigmented tissue such as bone, fatty tissues (e.g. brain), cartilage, sclera, stones etc. Diode pumped erbium-ytterbium (Er-Yb) fibre laser sources at /spl sim/1540 nm are particularly attractive because of the emission wavelength's proximity to the 2/sup nd/ overtone of water absorption at /spl sim/1470 nm.