Live cells assessment of opto-poration by a single femtosecond temporal Airy laser pulse

We report on the first study of live cell opto-poration by single temporally shaped femtosecond laser pulses. Based on an ad hoc developed cell staining protocol, we demonstrate the influence of the pulse temporal profile on the efficiency of poration and on cell viability at four hours comparing the results obtained for four different temporal pulse shapes: positive and negative temporal Airy, positively chirped, and 30 fs bandwidth limited pulses. Each pulse has been tested on a thousand cells. The most suitable pulses for opto-poration are the positive Temporal Airy Pulses (TAP+), likely because they enhance avalanche ionization compared to bandwidth-limited shorter pulses. We discuss the results in the context of previous studies, highlighting the differences between single and multi-pulse opto-poration strategies.