Towards a laser-based irradiation system for attacking Curvularia sp.: Preliminary results

Abstract

In the seedling stage, oil palm plants are susceptible to several diseases. Leaf spot disease caused by fungi or bacteria often appears that can lead to a failure and even death of the seeds. Spraying fungicides is usually conducted to diminish the fungi growth on the leaf. However, a continuous application of fungicides can become a resistance condition of the fungi to the given fungicides. In this research, a laser-based irradiation system is proposed to attack the fungi growth on the leaf. Photon as an electromagnetic wave is expected to penetrate the fungal cell, yielding dormant DNA, subsequently leading to the fungi’s death. The photon energy’s suitability could influence this technique’s effectiveness according to the absorption energy of the targeted fungal/bacterial cell. This work presents a preliminary result on the generated light power and the beam area at ∼16.59 mW/cm2 and ∼24 cm2, respectively, on Curvularia sp. under laboratory conditions.