Nd:YAG laser shock waves in artificial eyes

Nd:YAG laser surgery is performed by inducing optical breakdown in the interior of the eye. The optical breakdown is accompanied by shock waves which expand throughout the entire eye. In our experiments, we measured the amplitudes of shock waves at the walls of artificial eyes caused by single and multiple pulses of optical energy originating from an Nd:YAG laser at a wavelength of 1.064 micron. We have shown that the effects observed are not caused by mechanical resonance. We believe that similar results can be expected for human eyes. The peak pulse amplitudes in artificial eyes of different length were found to increase linearly as a function of the energy transferred into the eye. The peak amplitudes of pulse sequences were found to be only half of those for single pulses of comparable energy. In laser surgery, such sequences can be preferable if they achieve the same effect.