We investigated an effect of short pulse laser irradiation on protein crystallization in supersaturated solution. Effective crystallization of a protein molecule was confirmed by applying a femtosecond laser. We call this process laser irradiated growth technique (LIGHT). Protein crystals were obtained by LIGHT from normally uncrystallized conditions. Experimental results indicate that protein nucleation depends on the laser-irradiated conditions, and thus we must optimize the laser condition to obtain high-quality protein crystals. The crystallization will be promoted by nonlinear phenomena of the femtosecond laser. However, the mechanism is not clear. The challenge is to investigate what really happened.
