Understanding Laser Technology

Spectranetics offers the only Excimer Laser System approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of multiple cardiovascular diseases.

LASER is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The laser is a focused beam of light caused by exciting atoms to a high energy level. The laser light delivered depends on the gases and other factors used to create the energy levels and consequently play a role in determining at what medium of the light spectrum the resulting beam of light is emitted: ultraviolet, visible or infrared regions of the spectrum.

Scientists of the 1900s discovered laser, but technology tests did not begin until the 1950s and 60s depending on what sources you read. In the mid-1980s our engineers at Spectranetics discovered that using concentrated ultraviolet light delivered from the laser in short, controlled energy pulses by our own fiber-optic delivery devices could be a valuable medical treatment to remove build-up of arterial disease within the body.

The Spectranetics Laser System is an excimer laser because it utilizes a wavelength of 308 nanometers in the ultraviolet region of the light spectrum. Our laser dissolves arterial plaque without harming healthy tissue. Excimer laser ablation vaporizes the obstruction in a safer, simpler fashion than other modalities.

Laser light emitted from the Spectranetics Excimer laser is ultraviolet (308nm)—similar to laser light employed for LASIK (193.3nm). Light emitted from the highest infrared region of the spectrum is very hot and is used to cut through steel and other materials, while a wavelength of about 632nm is generally used to read bar codes.

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