Raydiance, a start-up that is miniaturizing a laser that generates an ultrashort burst of photons (which are intense enough to vaporize matter without creating heat), sees the possibly of many applications as varied as the removal of tattoos without any burn to the skin or the killing of cancer cells without affecting healthy cells. CEO Barry Schuler describes Raydiance's activities over the past there years as stealth mode, and he says the technology is very new and bold. No one was sure it would work, but Schuler can now say that the Raydiance laser, which has the appearance of a slide projector, could generate a new industry based on the photon burst for poking clean holds without burn marks in many materials and skin. Schuler says Raydiance can manipulate matter, and his company is running on $25 million in venture capital and with about 30 people. Plans are to raise the number of employees to 60. Senior optical scientist Ronald Waynant of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been testing the Raydiance system and says the technology puts significant power into a tiny place very quickly and blows electrons out of an area. The non-burning aspect of the cutting tool is of interest to Waynant, who has used it for a year to target possible applications in medicine and dentistry. Light, rather than heat, de-materializes atoms with ultrashort pulse lasers, which, when their light pulses are correctly controlled, can strip electrons from the atoms of any material the light pulse strikes, turning the target material into a plasma, or gas-like state.