Laser processing of advanced biomaterials: lasers are ideal for depositing diamondlike carbon films, microfabricating "lab-on-a-chip" biosensors, and building medical device nanostructures.

Since their invention in the early 1960s, lasers have found many uses in the medical field. Most current medical applications of lasers involve service as a "universal scalpel" in minimally invasive surgeries, which offer little contact, little blood loss, shorter operating times, and less postoperative pain than conventional techniques. Laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) refractive corneal surgery, coagulation for retinal detachment, and skin treatments are only some of the current applications for lasers in medicine. In the future, lasers will also serve to create ...