Abstract: A laser apparatus for machining dental hard tissue including a first ultrashort pulse laser beam source for providing a machining laser beam which is adapted to apply the machining laser beam to a predetermined treatment area of dental hard tissue, a second laser beam source for providing a pilot laser beam which is adapted to induce a fluorescence of pathogenic bacteria which marks the treatment area, and an application device for applying an absorber material to an area of dental hard tissue to be machined. The first laser beam source is formed in such a way that the absorber material is transitioned to a higher energy state by the absorption of the machining laser beam.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for reprogramming living cells without using viruses. In that method a cocktail comprising at least two transcription factors and a microRNA is transfected into the interior of at least one cell in order to convert this cell into iPS cells or into another type of cell, by storing the cells to be converted in an aqueous environment of the cocktail without viral carriers and focusing a femtosecond laser in a laser scanning microscope with a numerical aperture between 0.9 and 1.5 on a cell membrane of the cell to be reprogrammed and controlling the position of the focus. The exposure period and laser power for the optical treatment of the cell such that the focus depending on the pulse repetition frequency with an output between 7 mW and 100 mW generates a transient small-pore hole with a size up to 500 nm.

Abstract: The invention relates to an eye-surgical laser apparatus, a use of said apparatus, and to a method for scanning the corneal tissue of an eye before or during eye surgery. The apparatus comprises optics that are adapted to focus a laser beam at a focus within a corneal tissue of an eye, and a detection element adapted to detect light that is formed, at the focus, as a frequency multiple and backscattered or forward emitted. Image information about the inner corneal tissue is then produced from the detected light.

Abstract: A nonlinear laser scanning microscope for flexible, noninvasive three-dimensional detection comprising a measuring head which is flexibly connected to at least one radiation source by transmission optics and can be freely positioned in space, at least one controllable tilt mirror is arranged for aligning the excitation beam in order to keep the excitation beam concentric to an aperture-limited optical element of the measuring head, a test beam which is coupled out of the excitation beam onto a spatially resolving photodetector for monitoring the center alignment of the test beam as a conjugate position to the target position of the excitation beam and directional stabilizing the excitation beam by a control unit of the tilt mirror depending on a determined deviation.

Abstract: The invention is directed to a method and an arrangement for high-resolution microscopic imaging in laser endoscopy based on laser-induced object reaction radiation and for performing microscopic cuts in biological tissue. In using multiphoton processes for endoscopic applications in biological materials with an accuracy of under one millimeter, radiation of a pulsed femtosecond laser is focused into an object by means of a transmission focusing optics unit comprising a transmission system and miniature focusing optics having a high numerical aperture greater than 0.55 to trigger a local object reaction radiation in the micrometer to nanometer range, and the distal end of the transmission focusing optics unit is moved in at least two dimensions for highly spatially resolved scanning of the object and for transmitting object reaction radiation which is scanned in a locally progressive manner to an image-generating system with a photon detector.

Abstract: The invention relates to an optical method for targeted transfer of molecules, preferably of DNA, RNA, peptides, amino acids and proteins, into vital cells by means of laser radiation and to an arrangement for implementing the method. The object of the invention, to find a novel possibility for targeted molecule transfer into the interior of vital cells, particularly the transfer of DNA, RNA, peptides, amino acids and proteins, which achieves a high transfer efficiency while extensively excluding destructive side effects such as a lethal effect on a treated cell, is met according to the invention in that cellular membranes are opened transiently for the molecule transfer by multiple laser pulses in the microjoule range or less and a pulsed, near-infrared laser beam with a pulse width in the femtosecond range is directed in each instance to a submicrometer spot of a membrane of the vital cell for an irradiation period of less than one second.

Abstract: The invention relates to a process for minimally invasive to non-invasive optical treatment of tissues of the eye and also for diagnosis thereof and to a device for implementing this process. The object underlying the invention is to create a process and a laser arrangement for minimally invasive to non-invasive optical treatment in the interior of the eye, particularly of cases of defective vision, by ablation of tissue, said treatment being distinguished by a hitherto unattained high precision, with possible widths of incision in the range less than 2 ?m, without a significant mechanical impairment of the surrounding tissue occurring that has been generated by photodisruption. The process and the arrangement are to be inexpensive and easy to operate. In addition, at the same time the arrangement is to enable a three-dimensional imaging of the tissue.

Abstract: The invention is directed to a method and an arrangement for high-resolution microscopic imaging in laser endoscopy based on laser-induced object reaction radiation and for performing microscopic cuts in biological tissue. In using multiphoton processes for endoscopic applications in biological materials with an accuracy of under one millimeter, radiation of a pulsed femtosecond laser is focused into an object by means of a transmission focusing optics unit comprising a transmission system and miniature focusing optics having a high numerical aperture greater than 0.55 to trigger a local object reaction radiation in the micrometer to nanometer range, and the distal end of the transmission focusing optics unit is moved in at least two dimensions for highly spatially resolved scanning of the object and for transmitting object reaction radiation which is scanned in a locally progressive manner to an image-generating system with a photon detector.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for the simultaneous dissection in specific positions of filiform organic molecular chains, in particular DNA. The aim of the invention is to provided a method, by which a highly specific dissection can take place on certain sequences that can be freely selected and simultaneously on numerous filiform molecules. To achieve this, nanoparticles (1) are provided with a molecular chain (11) of any predeterminable sequence, which is selected to be complementary to a sequence of a molecule (2) that is to be dissected, said molecular chain(s) (11) is/are hybridised in the usual manner with the molecule, or specifically linked to said molecule in another manner and the nanoparticles (1) are subsequently subjected to a high-energy radiation of at least one wavelength, which can be absorbed by said nanoparticles (1).

Abstract: The invention relates to an optical method for targeted transfer of molecules, preferably of DNA, RNA, peptides, amino acids and proteins, into vital cells by means of laser radiation and to an arrangement for implementing the method. The object of the invention, to find a novel possibility for targeted molecule transfer into the interior of vital cells, particularly the transfer of DNA, RNA, peptides, amino acids and proteins, which achieves a high transfer efficiency while extensively excluding destructive side effects such as a lethal effect on a treated cell, is met according to the invention in that cellular membranes are opened transiently for the molecule transfer by multiple laser pulses in the microjoule range or less and a pulsed, near-infrared laser beam with a pulse width in the femtosecond range is directed in each instance to a submicrometer spot of a membrane of the vital cell for an irradiation period of less than one second.

Abstract: The invention relates to a process for minimally invasive to non-invasive optical treatment of tissues of the eye and also for diagnosis thereof and to a device for implementing this process. The object underlying the invention is to create a process and a laser arrangement for minimally invasive to non-invasive optical treatment in the interior of the eye, particularly of cases of defective vision, by ablation of tissue, said treatment being distinguished by a hitherto unattained high precision, with possible widths of incision in the range less than 2 &mgr;m, without a significant mechanical impairment of the surrounding tissue occurring that has been generated by photodisruption. The process and the arrangement are to be inexpensive and easy to operate. In addition, at the same time the arrangement is to enable a three-dimensional imaging of the tissue.

Abstract: A method for optical excitation of fluorophore-labeled DNA and fluorophore-labeled RNA, particularly of specific localizations of DNA and RNA labeled by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). It is the object of the method to make possible in a simple manner a high-contrast simultaneous excitation of a plurality of FISH fluorophores which have different fluorescence characteristics and are to be detected and displayed three-dimensionally. The excitation and detection of fluorophores at a depth of the biological material greater than 100 micrometers must be ensured. The FISH fluorophores and DNA markers are excited to fluorescence by a multiphoton excitation simultaneously by pulsed and non-pulsed radiation at a single wavelength in the range between 700 nm to 1000 nm, preferably between 760 nm and 820 nm. A total of 20 commercially available FISH fluorophores and DNA markers were tested. Fluorophores which were excited simultaneously by multiphoton excitation were detected in all tested cases.