Laser delivery system and method with diffractive optic beam integration

摘要

A laser delivery system and method incorporate a diffractive optic beam integrator. The diffractive optic apparatus for modifying the spatial intensity distribution of an excimer laser beam (10) to generate a spatially integrated beam comprises a diffractive optic diffuser (12) and a converging lens (22). The diffractive optic diffuser (12) includes a diffractive grating pattern etched in a transparent medium for transforming the intensity profile of the excimer laser beam into a generally circular, substantially uniform spatial intensity distribution at a spatial integration plane. A variable aperture positioned about the spatial integration plane selectively passes the spatially integrated beam to an imaging lens. The imaging lens forms an image of the passed beam about a surface of a tissue to be ablated. A scanning element under computer control scans the imaged beam about the surface.