Enhancing ablation efficiency in micro structuring using a deformable mirror for beam shaping of ultra-short laser pulses

摘要

Using ultra-short laser pulses for the generation of microstructures results in a high flexible tool for free form geometries in the micro range. Increasing laser power and repetition rates increase as well the demand of high flexible and efficient process strategies. To increase the ablation efficiency the optimal fluency can be determined, which is a material specific value. By varying the beam shape, the ablation efficiency can be enhanced. In this study a deformable mirror was used to vary the beam shape. This mirror is built by combining a piezo-electric ceramic and a mirror substrate. The ceramic is divided into several segments, which can be controlled independently. This results in a high flexible deformable mirror which influences the beam shape and can be used to vary the spot size or generate line geometries. The ablation efficiency and roughness of small generated cavities were analyzed in this study as well as the dimensions of the cavity. This can be used to optimize process strategies to combine high volume ablation and fine detail generation.