Del Mar Photonics - Newsletter Fall 2010 - Newsletter Winter 2010
Photonics West 2011
Presentations by featured Del Mar Photonics' customers.
Inactivation of encephalomyocarditis virus and herpes simplex virus by using 
a visible femtosecond laser 
Paper 7895-28 of Conference 7895
Date: Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Time: 12:10 PM – 12:30 PM
Author(s): Shaw-Wei D. Tsen, Washington Univ. in St. Louis (United States); 
Kong-Thon Tsen, Arizona State Univ. (United States)
Recently, a variety of viral systems, including M13 bacteriophage, tobacco 
mosaic virus (TMV), human papillomavirus (HPV) and human immunodeficiency virus 
(HIV) have been shown to be inactivated by the irradiation of a near-infrared 
subpicosecond fiber laser. These experimental results indicated that the 
inactivation of viruses by an ultrashort pulsed laser might involve disruption 
of their protein coat through laser-induced excitation of large-amplitude 
acoustic vibrations. In this work, we report experimental results on the 
inactivation of both encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) and herpes simplex virus 
(HSV) by using a visible femtosecond laser derived from the second harmonic 
generation of a cw mode-locked Ti-sapphire laser system. The inactivation of 
these viral particles has been demonstrated to depend on the laser exposure time 
as well as laser power density. Possible mechanisms for the inactivation will be 
discussed.
 
Customer site visit during Photonics West 2011 - sign