%0 Journal Article
%T Near-field ablation threshold of cellular samples at mid-IR wavelengths
%A Deepa Raghu
%A Joan A. Hoffmann
%A Benjamin Gamari
%A M. E. Reeves
%J Physics
%D 2012
%I arXiv
%R 10.1063/1.4719043
%X We report the near-field ablation of material from cellulose acetate coverslips in water and my- oblast cell samples in growth media, with a spot size as small as 1.5 {\mu}m under 3 {\mu}m wavelength radiation. The power dependence of the ablation process has been studied and comparisons have been made to models of photomechanical and plasma-induced ablation. The ablation mechanism is mainly dependent on the acoustic relaxation time and optical properties of the materials. We find that for all near-field experiments, the ablation thresholds are very high, pointing to plasma-induced ablation as the dominant mechanism.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.4980v1