Ablation apparatus for ablating an object by laser beam
AssigneeNidek Co., Ltd.
InventorToshifumi Sumiya
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ablation apparatus for ablating an object to a uniform depth by a laser beam. The laser may be an excimer laser, having non-uniform beam intensity of Gaussian distribution and like. Therefore the laser beam is scanned to the non-uniform intensity distribution and irradiated on the surface of the objection, whereby uniform depth of ablation is achieved. The apparatus is preferably applied to the operation of the cornea.
Claims14
An ablation apparatus for ablating a surface of an object, comprising:
- laser source means for emitting a laser beam having a non-uniform intensity of a Gaussian distribution in one direction and a uniform beam intensity in another direction;
- scanning means for scanning the laser beam only in the direction of the non-uniform intensity of the laser beam;
- and
- irradiation means for irradiating the laser beam scanned by the scanning means on an object to be ablated.
The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the projection lens is conjugate with said aperture and the surface of the object to be ablated to project an image of the aperture on the surface of an object to define the area to be ablated.
A method for ablating an object comprising the steps of:
- irradiating a laser beam having a non-uniform intensity distribution of a Gaussian distribution in one direction and a uniform beam intensity in another direction;
- scanning the laser beam only in the direction of the non-uniform intensity distribution of the laser beam;
- and ablating the object using the scanned laser beam.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.