Femto- and nanosecond laser ablation of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and PMMA doped with a linear absorber was
investigated in the infrared spectral region. Ablation thresholds were determined and incubation phenomena were identified. The
degree of incubation was calculated employing a phenomenological model. The influence of the pulse duration on the
machining quality of the polymers was examined. The presence of an absorbing chromophore is not a prerequisite for a
controllable fs-laser structuring in contrast to the ns-treatment. Surface swelling always accompanied ablation.
The 125-fs laser ablation behaviour (800 nm) of aluminium and anodic oxide coatings on an AlMgSi1 alloy was investigated. The multi-pulse ablation threshold of aluminium at 1.2 J cm-2 was less than that of the oxides of 23 J cm-2. Aluminium exhibited a single pulse modification (melting) threshold of 0.3 J cm-2. These values derived from an evaluation of the crater geometry coincided with on-line acoustic measurements. The detected microphone voltage amplitude increased linearly with the laser fluence. The morphology of the ablation craters on aluminium indicated melt formation and displacement of a homogeneous melt phase due to the recoil action of the expanding metal vapour. The laser-processed ceramic oxide phases, on the other hand, showed a spongy resolidified melt layer, which denotes a collocated in-depth formation both of a melt and a gas phase. These phenomena are discussed in terms of the relative dominance of penetration depth of laser light and heat affected zones in the investigated materials with strongly varying optical and thermodynamical properties.
The ultrafast laser ablation of silicon has been investigated experimentally and theoretically. The theoretical description is based on molecular dynamics (MD) simulations combined with a microscopic electronic model. We determine the thresholds of melting and ablation for two different pulse durations =20 and 500 fs. Experiments have been performed using 100 Ti:Sap-phire laser pulses per spot in air environment. The ablation thresholds were determined for pulses with a duration of 25 and 400 fs, respectively. Good agreement is obtained between theory and experiment.
Femtosecond laser interaction with silicon was investigated in water and in air, with 130-fs laser pulses at 800 nm wavelength. Under water confinement, higher modification thresholds, lower ablation depths and similar incubation factors were found in comparison to the dry experiment. Morphological features of the laser-induced cavities also differed. In contrast to air experiments, debris redeposition was negligible, while the ablated material remained suspended in the water layer phase. Underwater cavities obtained at high fluences and high number of pulses per spot showed anomalous profiles, consistent with a strong spatial deformation of the laser beam coupled into the target. Ripples formed at the edges of the modified area showed varying spacings: f100 and f700 nm for water and air experiments, respectively. Differences to the air experiment were related to a complex combination of fluence-dependent non-linear effects occurring in the water layer and to pulse-number-dependent shielding effects induced by cavitation bubbles and suspended ablated
material.
Multiple pulse investigations of 130-fs Ti:sapphire laser-induced damage of a high reflecting mirror consisting of alternating ?/4-layers of Ta2O5 and SiO2 and a single 500-nm Ta2O5 film were performed. In both cases, fused silica served as the substrate. For a fixed number of 1000 laser pulses per spot, a decrease in the damage threshold fluence of the mirror by a factor of two was observed by changing the repetition rate from 10 Hz to 1 kHz. A single 500-nm Ta2O5 film shows higher damage resistance compared to the mirror. The mirror and the Ta2O5 film samples were partially coated with a 300-nm-thick aluminium layer. The aluminium coating does not influence the damage threshold of the dielectrics underneath.
Zusammenfassung
Laser pulses in the 10-fs domain provide a quality of micromachining of fused silica and borosilicate glass that is unobtainable with longer pulses in the range of several 100 femtoseconds up to picoseconds. The shortening of the pulses reduces the statistical behavior of the material removal and the ablation process thus attains a more deterministic and reproducible character. The improved reproducibility of ablation is accompanied by significantly smoother morphology. This offers the potential for lateral and vertical machining precision of the order of 100 nm and 10 nm, respectively.
Laser ablation with femtosecond pulses (130 fs, wavelength 800 nm, repetition rate 2 Hz) was compared with nanosecond-pulse ablation (10 ns, wavelength 266 nm, repetition rate 2.5 Hz) of bariumalumoborosilicate glass in air using the direct focusing technique. Different ablation thresholds and heat-affected zones were observed. The lateral and vertical machining precision was evaluated. Single nanosecond laser pulses in the far UV resulted in a bubble or a circular hole in the centre of the illuminated spot, depending on the applied fluence. The ablation behaviour in the case of near-IR femtosecond pulses contrasted to this. Bubble formation was not detected. It needed repeated pulses at the same spot to modify the surface until material removal could be observed (incubation). Cavity dimensions of less than the beam diameter were achieved in this case.
Ti:sapphire laser pulses of 130 fs and 800 nm were focused on 3.2-7m-thick TiN films by a 60-mm focal length lens in air. The morphology of the ablated areas generated by laser pulses at a fluence slightly above the ablation threshold was characterized in dependence on the pulse number by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The cavity profiles, depths, diameters, and volumes were quantitatively evaluated by AFM. The polarization state of the laser light is discussed as a further parameter, in addition to fluence and pulse number, that influences and controls the ablation precision of these materials. It was observed that circularly polarized radiation enhances the average ablation rates and reduces the roughness in the cavities by a factor of 2-3 as compared to linearly polarized radiation of the same incident laser fluence. Special attention was paid to the interfacial region between the coating and substrate. Ultrashort-pulse laser drilling into the Si substrate revealed the generation of columnar features which even may surmount the original coating under laser conditions.