Deterministic Processing of Alumina with Ultra-short Laser Pulses

摘要

Ultrashort pulsed lasers can accurately ablate materials which are refractory, transparent, or are otherwise difficult to machine by other methods. The typical method of machining surfaces with ultrashort laser pulses is by raster scanning, or the machining of sequentially overlapping linear trenches. Experiments in which linear trenches were machined in alumina at various pulse overlaps and incident fluences are presented, and the dependence of groove depth on these parameters established. A model for the machining of trenches based on experimental data in alumina is presented, which predicts and matches observed trench geometry. This model is then used to predict optimal process parameters for the machining of trenches for maximal material removal rate for a given laser.