Abstract
This paper reports on the results of x-ray diffraction studies of laser created amorphous ice. Ice is rapidly solidified by using a laser pulse to selectively target a thin ice layer that is in contact with glass at cryogenic temperatures. The laser pulse creates a region of liquid water which is in direct contact with the cold glass surface. The water refreezes at cooling rates of up to 1 million degrees per second. In this paper the effectiveness of this technique for creating amorphous ice from dilute aqueous solutions is evaluated using x-ray diffraction. It has been shown previously that this laser based freezing technique can be modified to allow for the rapid freezing of cells and tissue, and thus the ability of this technique to create amorphous ice suggests cryopreservation without cryoprotectants may be possible.