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Researchers at Vanderbilt's Free-Electron Laser Center are developing new forms of laser surgery, improved X-ray technology, and better methods for protein identification

galaxy.

The FEL is an ideal instrument for charting the interactions of light and matter in many of the still unexplored regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Unlike most conventional lasers, the FEL can be tuned over a broad range of the spectrum ranging from the infrared to the ultraviolet. In addition, the FEL design allows for very high power levels.

The W.W. Keck Foundation Free-Electron Laser Center at Vanderbilt is one of four university FEL centers in the United States and one of only nine such centers worldwide where scientific research is conducted. It operates in the infrared portion of the spectrum. It can produce laser light in wavelengths ranging from two to nine microns and has a peak power of more than 10 megawatts.

Vanderbilt has the only FEL in the world licensed to use this powerful beam for surgical operations on human patients. The first human surgery using a free-electron laser beam was performed successfully on December 17, 1999. The laser beam was used to destroy part of a brain tumor. This feat was repeated the following September with a second patient. Two weeks later the FEL was used for eye surgery. It was used to cut the sheath surrounding the optical nerve of a patient whose eye was being removed. This and several subsequent surgeries following the same protocol have shown that the laser is a superior instrument for such an operation.

Another center development with significant medical potential comes from the X-ray portion of the spectrum. Experiments with the FEL beam have shown that it is possible to produce monochromatic X-rays by colliding the infrared beam head-on with a stream of electrons accelerated to relativistic velocities . Essentially, the infrared photons bounce off the electrons and pick-up enough energy to transform them into X-rays in the process. The monochromatic X-ray beam is similar to a laser beam. Monochromatic X-rays are capable of producing sharper, cleaner images than
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Contact: David F. Salisbury
david.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu
615-343-6803
Vanderbilt University
18-Oct-2001


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