Advances in Ultrafast Laser Microprocessing

Ming Li, Xinbing Liu
2003 NIHON GAZO GAKKAISHI (Journal of the Imaging Society of Japan)  
We review recent advances in ultrafast laser technology as applied to the fi eld of ultra-fi ne materials processing. Ultrafast lasers are a class of lasers that produce pulse widths of from picoseconds to femtoseconds. The most important characteristics of ultrafast laser-matter interaction include precise ablation threshold and absence of heat diff usion into the material during laser irradiation, both of which are due to the short temporal duration of the laser pulse. As the laser pulse
more » ... decreases from milliseconds through microseconds to nanoseconds and picoseconds,the material removal mechanism transitions from melt expulsion to direct ablative removal. This process is similar in many diff erent solid materials,regardless of the material composition. In this paper, a number of ultrafast laser machining examples in a variety of materials are reviewed to illustrate this point. Precise ablation threshold,combined with narrow heat-aff ected zone,result in high quality materials processing.
doi:10.11370/isj.42.251 fatcat:n4aoctujk5ghppcn5w5mlf3xkm