Laser Processing of Materials for Medical Applications

Over 50 years ago, Maiman developed the first instrument for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. The use of lasers to process materials for medical applications has steadily grown over the past decade. Lasers are finding significant academic and industrial use for coating, machining, melting, polymerizing, sintering, and welding materials that are used to restore normal physiologic activity. Laser-based techniques such as selective laser sintering and laser machining are being used to process materials with small-scale features for medical applications.

This book is intended to provide materials engineers, manufacturing engineering, biological scientists, computer scientists, and physical scientists with an overview of current developments in this interdisciplinary area. Processing of materials for use in cardiac stents, patient-specific prostheses, and tissue engineering scaffolds will be discussed. Use of lasers to process nanostructured materials for medical applications will be considered. In addition, obstacles to the use of laser materials in clinical medicine will be reviewed.