Corneal biomechanics plays an important role in determining the eye’s structural integrity, optical power and the overall quality of vision. It also plays an increasingly recognized role in corneal transplant and refractive surgery, affecting the predictability, quality and stability of final visual outcome [1]. A critical limitation to increasing our understanding of how corneal biomechanics controls corneal stability and refraction is the lack of non-invasive technologies that microscopically measure local biomechanical properties, such as corneal elasticity within the 3D space. Bubble based acoustic radiation force elastic microscopy (ARFEM) introduce the opportunity to measure the inhomogeneous elastic properties of the cornea by the movement of a micron size cavitation bubble generated by a low energy femtosecond laser pulse [2, 3]. Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) also known as laser induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS) or laser spark spectrometry (LSS) is an atomic emission spectroscopy [4]. The LIBS principle of operation is quite simple, although the physical processes involved in the laser matter interaction are complex and still not completely understood. In one sentence for description, the laser pulses are focused down to a target so as to generate plasma that vaporizes a small amount of material which the emitted spectrum is measured to analysis the elements of the target.
|