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Development of materials and fabrication techniques lead the growth of three-dimensional cell culture matrices in biomedical engineering. In this work, we present a method for fabricating self-standing fiber scaffolds by two-photon polymerization induced by a femtosecond laser. The aligned fibers are 330 μm long with a diameter of 6–9 μm. Depending on the pitch of the aligned fibers, various cell morphologies are distinguished via three-dimensional images. Furthermore, the morphologies of fibroblast cells (NIH-3T3) and epithelial cells (MDCK) on the fiber scaffolds are studied to show the effect of high curvature (3–4.5 μm radii) on cell morphology. NIH-3T3 cells that contain straight pattern of actin microfilament bundles are extended and partly wrap single fibers or tend to reside between fibers. On the other hand, MDCK cells that contain circular pattern of actin microfilament bundles cover the fiber peripheral surface exhibiting high aspect ratio elongation. These results indicate that cell morphology on fiber scaffolds is influenced by the pattern of actin microfilament bundles.

In laser cleaving, the thermal stress caused by laser heating and water-jet cooling propagates previously induced cracks in the workpiece material. The laser-cleaving conditions affect the quality of the fracture surface, and therefore, elucidating the relationship between the cleaved surface, cleaving conditions, and crack propagation is essential. Against this backdrop, in this study, we investigated the morphology of the cleaved surface and visualized the crack propagation and stress in situ using a high-speed polarization camera. The distance between the glass edge and cleaved surface was varied. When the laser-cleavage line was close to the glass edge, twist hackles were formed on the cleaved surface. The area in which the twist hackles formed on the cleaved surface coincided with the lagging section of the crack front. Furthermore, the twist hackle reached the specimen surface, and the edge of the surface exhibited a sawtooth shape. Observations with the high-speed polarization camera revealed that the internal stress was asymmetric with respect to the crack when the twist hackles were formed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-power continuous-wave (CW) laser was used to move a steel microsphere through a CaO-Al 2 O 3 -SiO 2 glass block at room temperature along a trajectory toward the laser source. A compositional analysis revealed that the CaO concentration in the glass decreased at the center of the microsphere's trajectory but increased in the area adjacent to it; the SiO 2 concentration showed an opposite trend while the Al 2 O 3 concentration did not change. Further, the compositional difference between the center and the area adjacent to the microsphere trajectory depends on the velocity of the microsphere, which is controllable by tuning the laser power.