摘要
极软物质主要涵盖低弹性模量软物质和纳米分散体系,例如生物大分子、细胞、软组织等天然生物材料,以及水凝胶、纳米胶体等人工合成材料。实现此类物质的微纳结构化,是构建智能生物器件、实施在体细胞精准干预乃至显微精准手术的关键基础。传统微纳加工技术在应对水凝胶及生物组织等软物质时,普遍存在热损伤大、加工精度有限、难以实现内部真三维结构等挑战。超快激光具备极高的峰值功率和极短的脉冲持续时间,能够实现真三维、亚微米精度及低损伤加工。该技术不仅可原位集成微传感器、微执行器等片上软物质复杂三维功能性结构,而且可推动类器官、细胞支架等智能微器件的发展,并延伸至细胞调控以及组织切割、消融与改性等生物医学应用领域,为发展无创、高精度的在体显微手术提供了新的机理与工具。本文围绕超快激光在多种软物质领域的应用展开论述,重点探讨超快激光对软物质的作用与结构化,及其在片上微纳工程(如智能微纳器件)中的应用,进而延伸至超快激光与角膜等软组织的相互作用,以及超快激光在眼科显微手术等领域的创新探索与应用。
Significance Ultrasoft materials typically encompass soft materials characterized by low elastic modulus and nanoscale dispersed systems.Typical representatives include biological macromolecules,cells,various soft tissues,as well as synthetic hydrogels and colloidal nanomaterials.The structural design and fabrication of such materials at the micro/nano scale serve as the critical foundation for developing intelligent biological devices,enabling precise regulation at the singlecell level,and advancing minimally invasive surgery.However,conventional micro/nano processing techniques face inherent limitations when manipulating soft materials such as hydrogels and biological tissues,primarily due to issues including significant thermal damage,restricted processing resolution,and challenges in reconstructing authentic threedimensional internal architectures.In contrast,ultrafast laser processing technology,leveraging its inherent attributes of high peak power and ultrashort pulse duration,enables true threedimensional,submicron precision fabrication with minimal thermal damage.This technology not only achieves insitu integration of complex threedimensional structures within onchip functional devices such as microsensors and microactuators,but also effectively facilitates the development of intelligent microdevices,including organoids and cell scaffolds.Furthermore,it extends to diverse biomedical applications such as cell regulation,tissue cutting,ablation,and modification.Notably,this technology provides novel mechanistic insights and methodological tools for the advancement of noninvasive,highprecision in vivo microsurgery.Currently,ultrafast laser technology has been widely applied in multiple medical domains,playing an irreplaceable role in key clinical workflows such as disease diagnosis,therapeutic intervention,and surgical procedures.This fully underscores the significant scientific value and clinical implications of research focused on the interaction between ultrafast lasers and ultrasoft materials.Progress Currently,ongoing research continues to advance the frontier of ultrafast laser interactions with ultrasoft materials,encompassing multilevel applications ranging from molecularscale modifications to macroscopic device integration.Specifically,one major direction involves the fabrication of hydrogelbased smart microdevices tailored for diverse application scenarios through ultrafast laser technology.This includes the onchip construction of microlenses,microactuators,sensors,and other micro/nano structures,with proteinbased devices serving as a representative example(Fig.2),as well as the functionalization and spatiotemporal control of advanced smart microsystems(Fig.3),such as microrobots,bionic architectures,and 4Dprinted engineered systems.The second key area focuses on the minimally invasive processing and precise regulation enabled by ultrafast lasers in biological tissues—including skin,blood vessels,and nerves(Fig.4)—with particularly notable potential demonstrated at the cellular level(Fig.5).Notably,owing to the eye’s unique anatomical structure and high compatibility with laserbased interventions,ultrafast laser applications in ophthalmology have garnered significant attention in both fundamental research and clinical surgery,and are now employed in multiple therapeutic domains,including corneal refractive surgery and cataract treatment.Current research efforts are primarily concentrated on several clinically significant technical approaches,such as ultrafast laser corneal ablation(Fig.6),corneal crosslinking(Fig.7),and corneal refractive index modulation(Fig.8),all of which enable highly precise and minimally invasive treatments for ocular diseases.With continued advancements in research and technological refinement,novel therapeutic paradigms of substantial clinical value—such as noninvasive refractive correction—are anticipated to become achievable in the foreseeable future.Conclusions and Prospects Overall,related research has conducted indepth exploration in multiple dimensions such as onchip micro/nano processing,biological tissue regulation,and in vivo clinical surgery,expanding rich application prospects in a wide range of biomedical fields and bringing significant value to human health and life safety.Future research can focus on improving the processing efficiency of ultrafast lasers and endowing soft matter devices with higher structural freedom and functional adjustability.By introducing parallel beam scanning,adaptive optics and other process optimization methods,it is expected to significantly increase processing speed and accuracy;at the same time,the compatibility of materials and the controllability of devices should be further expanded to cover more complex biological composite materials and multifunctional,multidegreeoffreedom integrated devices,in order to better adapt to the needs of complex physiological environments in vivo.In the field of medical engineering,it is urgent to deeply explore the interaction mechanism between ultrafast lasers and various biological tissues and organs,and explore the possibility of new materials,new principles and new treatment strategies;and continuously promote the transformation process and standardization construction of ultrafast laser technology in clinical applications.In addition,by combining artificial intelligence technology,realtime analysis and dynamic response to individual anatomical structures and pathological states of patients can be achieved,which will help promote the development of clinical diagnosis and surgical operations towards automation and integration.Ultimately,ultrafast laser technology is expected to redefine the technical boundaries of precision medicine and achieve more precise,efficient and safe clinical diagnosis and treatment applications.
作者
王晨旭
瞿宸
黄瀚轩
肖子峰
辛玥燃
竺鑫洁
沈阳
王晓瑛
周行涛
孙允陆
Wang Chenxu;Qu Chen;Huang Hanxuan;Xiao Zifeng;Xin Yueran;Zhu Xinjie;Shen Yang;Wang Xiaoying;Zhou Xingtao;Sun Yunlu(College of Future Information Technology,Fudan University,Shanghai 200433,China;Eye&ENT Hospital,Fudan University,Shanghai 200031,China)
出处
《激光与光电子学进展》
2026年第3期135-153,共19页
Laser & Optoelectronics Progress
基金
中国国家自然科学基金委面上项目(62475046)
上海市科委2025年度关键技术研发计划“新一代信息技术”项目(25511103900)。
关键词
超快激光
软物质
微纳加工
在体显微手术
ultrafast laser
ultrasoft material
micro/nano processing
in vivo microsurgery
