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Chapter 1 – Fundamentals of Medical/Aesthetic Lasers and IPLs v1.1
A bit of physics.....
It is important to understand that absorption of light is a ‘probabilistic’ event – that means that when a photon encounters an atom or molecule, there is a certain probability that it will be absorbed. If the atom has a ‘strong’ absorption preference for that photon, then there is a high chance it will be absorbed – although, not 100%.
Likewise, a photon may encounter another atom which has a ‘weak’ absorption preference i.e. a low probability of absorption. In some cases, that photon will still be absorbed by that atom.
So, keep in mind that a certain percentage of laser/IPL photons which are fired into the skin will be absorbed by atoms/molecules which are weak absorbers, but they will still absorb! That means that they will heat up, even if we don’t want that...
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Chapter 1 LEVEL A Fundamentals of Lasers/IPLs
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