Femtosecond Laser Ablation of Copper

摘要

In recent years, femtosecond (fs) laser ablation has attracted much interest in both basic and applied physics, mainly because of its potential application in micromachining and pulsed laser deposition. Ultrashort laser ablation have the capability to ablate materials precisely with little or no collateral damage, even with materials that are impervious to laser energy from conventional pulsed lasers. The extreme intensities and short timescale at which ultrashort pulsed lasers operate differentiate them from other lasers such as nanosecond laser. In this work, we investigate the expansion dynamics of Cu (copper) plasma generated by ultrashort laser ablation of pure copper targets by optically examining the plasma plume. Time-integrated optical emission spectroscopy measurements by using intensified charged coupled detector array (ICCD) imaging were used to detect the species present in the plasma and to study the laser-generated plasma formation and evolution. Temporal emission profiles are measured. Our interest in the dynamics of laser-generated copper plasma arises from the fact that copper has been considered as a substitute for Aluminium (Al) interconnects/metallization in ULSI devices (for future technology). It is important to know the composition and behavior of copper plasma species for the understanding of the mechanisms involved and optimizing the micro-machining processes and deposition conditions.