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Micromachining of Transparent Biocompatible Polymers Applied in Medicine Using Bursts of Femtosecond Laser Pulses

Biocompatible polymers are used for many different purposes (catheters, artificial heart components, dentistry products, etc.). An important field for biocompatible polymers is the production of vision implants known as intraocular lenses or custom-shape contact lenses. Typically, curved surfaces ar...

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Autores principales: Kažukauskas, Evaldas, Butkus, Simas, Tokarski, Piotr, Jukna, Vytautas, Barkauskas, Martynas, Sirutkaitis, Valdas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7763756/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33321925
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi11121093
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author Kažukauskas, Evaldas
Butkus, Simas
Tokarski, Piotr
Jukna, Vytautas
Barkauskas, Martynas
Sirutkaitis, Valdas
author_facet Kažukauskas, Evaldas
Butkus, Simas
Tokarski, Piotr
Jukna, Vytautas
Barkauskas, Martynas
Sirutkaitis, Valdas
author_sort Kažukauskas, Evaldas
collection PubMed
description Biocompatible polymers are used for many different purposes (catheters, artificial heart components, dentistry products, etc.). An important field for biocompatible polymers is the production of vision implants known as intraocular lenses or custom-shape contact lenses. Typically, curved surfaces are manufactured by mechanical means such as milling, turning or lathe cutting. The 2.5 D objects/surfaces can also be manufactured by means of laser micromachining; however, due to the nature of light–matter interaction, it is difficult to produce a surface finish with surface roughness values lower than ~1 µm Ra. Therefore, laser micromachining alone can’t produce the final parts with optical-grade quality. Laser machined surfaces may be polished via mechanical methods; however, the process may take up to several days, which makes the production of implants economically challenging. The aim of this study is the investigation of the polishing capabilities of rough (~1 µm Ra) hydrophilic acrylic surfaces using bursts of femtosecond laser pulses. By changing different laser parameters, it was possible to find a regime where the surface roughness can be minimized to 18 nm Ra, while the polishing of the entire part takes a matter of seconds. The produced surface demonstrates a transparent appearance and the process shows great promise towards commercial fabrication of low surface roughness custom-shape optics.
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spelling pubmed-77637562020-12-27 Micromachining of Transparent Biocompatible Polymers Applied in Medicine Using Bursts of Femtosecond Laser Pulses Kažukauskas, Evaldas Butkus, Simas Tokarski, Piotr Jukna, Vytautas Barkauskas, Martynas Sirutkaitis, Valdas Micromachines (Basel) Article Biocompatible polymers are used for many different purposes (catheters, artificial heart components, dentistry products, etc.). An important field for biocompatible polymers is the production of vision implants known as intraocular lenses or custom-shape contact lenses. Typically, curved surfaces are manufactured by mechanical means such as milling, turning or lathe cutting. The 2.5 D objects/surfaces can also be manufactured by means of laser micromachining; however, due to the nature of light–matter interaction, it is difficult to produce a surface finish with surface roughness values lower than ~1 µm Ra. Therefore, laser micromachining alone can’t produce the final parts with optical-grade quality. Laser machined surfaces may be polished via mechanical methods; however, the process may take up to several days, which makes the production of implants economically challenging. The aim of this study is the investigation of the polishing capabilities of rough (~1 µm Ra) hydrophilic acrylic surfaces using bursts of femtosecond laser pulses. By changing different laser parameters, it was possible to find a regime where the surface roughness can be minimized to 18 nm Ra, while the polishing of the entire part takes a matter of seconds. The produced surface demonstrates a transparent appearance and the process shows great promise towards commercial fabrication of low surface roughness custom-shape optics. MDPI 2020-12-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7763756/ /pubmed/33321925 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi11121093 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kažukauskas, Evaldas
Butkus, Simas
Tokarski, Piotr
Jukna, Vytautas
Barkauskas, Martynas
Sirutkaitis, Valdas
Micromachining of Transparent Biocompatible Polymers Applied in Medicine Using Bursts of Femtosecond Laser Pulses
title Micromachining of Transparent Biocompatible Polymers Applied in Medicine Using Bursts of Femtosecond Laser Pulses
title_full Micromachining of Transparent Biocompatible Polymers Applied in Medicine Using Bursts of Femtosecond Laser Pulses
title_fullStr Micromachining of Transparent Biocompatible Polymers Applied in Medicine Using Bursts of Femtosecond Laser Pulses
title_full_unstemmed Micromachining of Transparent Biocompatible Polymers Applied in Medicine Using Bursts of Femtosecond Laser Pulses
title_short Micromachining of Transparent Biocompatible Polymers Applied in Medicine Using Bursts of Femtosecond Laser Pulses
title_sort micromachining of transparent biocompatible polymers applied in medicine using bursts of femtosecond laser pulses
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7763756/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33321925
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi11121093
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