Appeal No. 95-0065 Application 07/568,348 absorption as the wavelengths of the CO laser or of lasers in 2 the 2.7 to 3.1 µm range. The Horn article, as the examiner points out, does disclose the use of an erbium-YLF laser, which is one of the lasers disclosed by appellant as useable in his invention. However, Horn's only reference to this laser is on page 338 (quoted supra), and there he stated that it produces short pulses at a wavelength of 1.228 µm, which is outside of appellant's claimed range. In the paragraph on page 340 which is quoted above, Horn discloses certain criteria for a lens capsulotomy laser, including, inter alia, high corneal transmission, low ocular media transmission, and low retinal absorption. Figs 3b and 3c on the same page show that a wavelength of 1.4 or 1.5 µm would meet the latter two criteria. On the other hand, however, Fig. 3a shows that at Horn's recommended wavelengths of 1.20 to 1.29 µm (1200 to 1290 nm), the corneal transmission is in the 90% region, while at wavelengths of 1.4 to 2.2 µm corneal transmission is lower, with a peak of 9Page: Previous 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007