Effect of plasma generation on the performance of the crystalline lens

This paper presents the dynamic equation of a laser pulse in the human crystalline lens when plasma generation by a laser, the nonlinearity due to Kerr effect and the gradient index (GRIN) structure are simultaneously taken into account. Plasma generation affects beam propagation mainly on account of two factors. Firstly, because of the electron heavy particles collisions in the plasma, laser energy is absorbed and hence the laser beam gets attenuated. Secondly, plasma electrons also contribute to the nonlinearity. Therefore, laser beam propagation in the crystalline lens with plasma becomes a complex process. For typical lens and laser parameters, the effect of changing the plasma parameters on beam dynamics is studied here. It is found that the laser power has to be increased by a factor around 3 as compared to without plasma, to cause self-focusing of the laser beam in the lens.