Optical layout with paths for ablation, high-speed bright-field imaging and confocal fluorescence imaging shown in solid blue, dashed red and thick green lines, respectively.

Lifetime of laser-induced cavitation bubbles as a function of energy incident on the sample: red diamonds, solution of LD-390 in ethanol; gray squares, fruit fly embryos; blue circles, deionized water. Although the ablation thresholds differ by a factor of nearly 100, the bubble lifetime for a given pulse energy is consistent across all these samples.

Isolating a single cell from the amnioserosa using a conventional multi-pulse system (Media 1). The energy of each ablation pulse was 6.3 µJ at the mirror in front of the SLM—approximately 1.3 µJ at the sample, which is about 5× the ablation threshold. Each panel shows a confocal image of the tissue either (A) before or (B-H) during and after the sequence of ablations. Green overlays show the original outline of the cell to be isolated. Red crosshairs demarcate targets for the next ablation pulse. The static bright rings in the post-ablation images are holes in the embryo’s overlying vitelline membrane. The 20-µm scale bar is common to all images. The time stamp for each panel is relative to the first image.

Isolating a single cell from the amnioserosa using the single-pulse multi-point system (Media 2). The energy of the ablation pulse was 171 µJ at the surface of the SLM—approximately 10.3 µJ at the sample, which is about 4× the threshold expected for ten single-point ablations. (A) Confocal image of the tissue before ablation. Red crosshairs demarcate targets for ablation. (B-E) Confocal images after ablation. One can clearly see five holes in the overlying vitelline membrane. Green overlays show the original outline of the isolated cell. The time stamp for each panel is relative to the first image. (F) Comparison of the dynamic retraction of surrounding tissues (upper curve) and the collapse of the isolated cell (lower curve) as measured along a single line passing through the wound and isolated cell. (G-I) High-speed bright-field images of cavitation bubbles in solution. Images taken immediately post ablation, at maximum extent and at collapse with 10 ns exposures. Five pairs of cavitation bubbles can be seen in (G). The 20-µm scale bar is common to all images.

Multi-point ablation for linear incisions in the lateral epidermis (Media 3). The energy of the ablation pulse was 146 µJ at the surface of the SLM—approximately 8.7 µJ at the sample, which is approximately 3× the threshold for ten single-point ablations. (A) Confocal image of the tissue before ablation. Red lines demarcate the targeted incisions. (B-F) Confocal images after ablation. (G-I) Lines of cavitation bubbles generated by same pattern in laser dye. Images was taken immediately post ablation, at maximum extent and at collapse with a 10 ns exposure. The common scale bar is 20-µm long.