Characterization of materials ejected by excimer laser ablation of hydrated collagen gel

The materials ejected from the hydrated collagen gel by ArF laser (193 nm) ablation were investigated using time-resolved photography, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and FTIR attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR). The time-resolved photography suggested that the characteristics of the ejected materials were affected by the laser fluence and the surface condition, and the driving force of the material ejection would be the cavitation bubble collapse. The AFM and FTIR-ATR measurements demonstrated that measurable-sized materials were ejected by the laser ablation and the structure of the collagen in the ejected materials was partially changed from the original. Some of the ejected materials were found to consist of low molecular weight polypeptides.