Once the cancerous area is precisely targeted, only the intensity of the laserradiation needs to be turned up in order to irradiate, or burn off, the tumor.
"Because the femtosecond laserradiation can be precisely focused both spatially and temporally, one can avoid heating up too many other things that you do not want heated, " said Parigger.
By tuning the quantum cascade laser and measuring how much of the infra-red radiation is absorbed on its way to a detector, hazardous gases in between can be identified.