Physical parameters, modeling, and methodological details in using IR laser pulses to warm frozen or vitrified cells ultra-rapidly

We report additional details of the thermal modeling, selection of the laser, and construction of the Cryo Jig used for our ultra-rapid warming studies of mouse oocytes (Jin et al., 2014). A Nd:YAG laser operating at 1064 nm was selected to deliver short 1 ms pulses of sufficient power to produce a warming rate of 1 × 107 °C/min from −190 °C to 0 °C. A special Cryo Jig was designed and built to rapidly remove the sample from LN2 and expose it to the laser pulse. India ink carbon black particles were required to increase the laser energy absorption of the sample. The thermal model reported here is more general than that previously reported. The modeling reveals that the maximum warming rate achievable via external warming across the cell membrane is proportional to (1/R2) where R is the cell radius.