Processing window for femtosecond laser microsurgery and fluorescence imaging of an arterial tissue hosted in a microfluidic chip

Abstract

We study the exposure limitations of femtosecond laser microsurgery and multiphoton imaging in a microfluidic chip environment, assessing damage thresholds at various interfaces as well as interference from bubble formation in the hosting solution. Both heat accumulation and incubation effects from multipulse laser exposures at 1-MHz repetition rate were evaluated. For demonstration, three microsurgery approaches of laser scribing, percussion drilling and trepanning were applied to arterial walls loaded in vitro in a lab-on-a-chip device. We report that deleterious effects from interface damage and microbubble formation can be avoided to offer laser processing windows for damage-free fluorescence imaging and precise microsurgery of live tissue hosted inside small microfluidic chambers.