Glass waveguides with artificially laser placed scattering centers improve the applicability for medical applications

Objective: Currently applied medical wave guides in medical therapy, e.g. laser induced interstitial thermotherapy (LITT) use a so-called diffuser attached at the distal end. These manually fabricated diffusers are filled with scattering particles embedded in a polymer matrix and are expensive and not very reproducible. The objective is to induce scattering centers directly by utilizing ultra-short laser pulse excitation and selective material reaction inside a quartz waveguide. The laser based processing method allows an integrated diffuser production saving costs and increasing reliability. Furthermore, it is…