An investigation into melt flow dynamics during repetitive pulsed laser drilling of transparent media

This paper presents an investigation into the dynamics of repetitive pulsed laser drilling of a visually transparent media using a CO₂ laser source. This enabled the use of a high-speed imaging system for observing, in real time, the behaviour of the drilling process in the laser drilled cavity of 1.5 mm diameter holes of up to 18.5 mm in depth. The work revealed that the instantaneous drilling velocity within each laser pulse can vary considerably from the average drilling velocity as a result of the non-uniform temporal pulse shape and the oscillation of the melt ejection rate. During beam breakthrough, both upward and downward melt ejections were observed to occur inside the drilled hole for a short period of time, after which the material was ejected through the exit end of the holes. It has been shown in this work that the downward melt flow velocity increases with hole depth for a positively tapered hole (from 0.09 to 1.43 m/s) and decreases with hole depth for a negatively tapered hole geometry (from 0.4 to 0.1 m/s), as a result of the change in the assist gas velocity inside the drilled hole with respect to the hole taper geometry. The mechanisms of forming the positively and negatively tapered holes in the transparent media have been correlated with the hole geometry and melt flow velocity. The work has demonstrated a new method of studying the melt dynamics in laser drilling.     

The effect of laser peak power and pulse width on the hole geometry repeatability in laser percussion drilling

In this work, the two main factors that influence the repeatability of the laser percussion drilling process are identified. Experimental parametric analysis was carried out to correlate the laser parameters with the repeatability of a laser percussion drilling process. The experiment was conducted using a flash lamp pumped Nd:YAG laser to drill 2 mm thick mild steel sheets. The relationship between the percentage standard deviation (PSD) of entrance hole diameter, hole circularity and the operating parameters is established. Thirty-five holes were drilled and analysed for each set of identical laser parameters. The PSD of entrance hole diameter ranges between 1.47% and 4.78% for an operating window of 3.5–7 kW peak power, and 1–3 ms pulse width. The circularity of the entrance hole (defined as the ratio between the minimum and maximum diameters of the hole) ranges from 0.94 to 0.87, and is found to correlate with repeatability. The work shows that higher peak power, and shorter pulse width gives better hole geometry repeatability. The effect of melt ejection on hole geometry repeatability is also investigated. Melt ejection and spatter formation have been found to contribute to the poor repeatability of the process.     

The effects of process parameters on spatter deposition in laser percussion drilling

This paper reports on the characterisation and analysis of spatter deposition during laser drilling in Nimonic 263 alloy for various laser processing parameters using a fibre-optic delivered 400 W Nd:YAG laser. The principal findings are a large proportion of the spatter (approx. > 70%) was deposited due to the initial laser pulses (before beam breakthrough) required to drill a through-hole. Short pulse widths, low peak powers and high pulse frequencies generated smaller spatter deposition areas. At high pulse frequencies, the spatter distribution/thickness can be altered as a result of laser-ejected material interaction. Focal plane positions between −0.5 and +1.5 mm produced relatively similar spatter areas of about 14 mm². As a result of the reduction in the material removed per pulse, a longer focal length of 160 mm generated smaller areas of spatter deposition in comparison to a shorter focal length of 120 mm. In addition, a generic relationship between the spatter area and d_entrance/d_exit with increasing total laser energy has been established.     

Shadowgraphic imaging of material removal during laser drilling with a long pulse excimer laser

After the development of a novel XeCl excimer laser with a nearly diffraction-limited beam and 175 ns pulse length, research was done on different industrial applications of this laser. Hole drilling, one of these applications, was studied extensively. A better understanding of the drilling process is necessary to optimise the drilling efficiency and to control the quality of the holes. A shadowgraphic imaging technique was used for studying the removal of material from the hole and the absorption of the laser beam by this removed material. Images were made at successive times both during and after the laser pulse.In drilling of thin foils, it was shown that the material was ejected mainly after the laser pulse. A comparison of different materials showed that the drilling process should be optimised for each material independently. Furthermore, the plume was found to be not fully transparent for processing materials with a strong absorption line at or near the laser wavelength. The correlation between material and drilling speed suggests improved energy transfer and improved melt ejection for the materials with this absorption. PACS 42.62.Cf; 52.38.Dx; 52.38.Mf     

Controlled process for polymer micromachining using designed pulse trains of a UV solid state laser

A flexible workstation equipped with a solid state laser operating at 266 nm wavelength was used to machine holes in polyethylene terephthalate, polyimide and polycarbonate. An optical pulse picker was employed to reduce the high repetition rates of the laser, while a breakthrough sensor was used to avoid over-drilling of through holes. For each material, different repetition rates and designed pulse trains were tested to improve feature quality and process efficiency. Although the three polymers had very different reactions at this wavelength they all showed an improvement in feature quality with decreasing repetition rate due to a reduction in thermal effects. Up to 10 kHz the average depth per pulse remained unchanged and afterwards a slight increase was observed but this was accompanied by large uncertainties. Bursts of pulses at 40 kHz inserted inside the low repetition rate pulse train reduced the drilling time and the amount of debris redeposited without affecting the feature quality. It was found that a number of cleaning pulses after perforation eliminates the heat affected zone around exits. Holes with entrance diameters below 20 μm and exit diameters as small as 2 μm were obtained with high repeatability.     

High speed drilling by YAG laser

A high-quality laser beam has been obtained using a telescope inserted into a laser cavity. Based on this cavity structure, a high speed laser drilling machine, which produces ruby bearings using a single pulse, has been built. The drilling speed is 16 pieces s^-1 and the yield is 98.8% with a drilling diameter of 0.04–0.05 ± 0.005 mm, and bearing depth of 0.26–0.40 mm.     

Laser drilling of stainless steel with nanosecond double-pulse

Nanosecond double-pulse laser drilling is reported in this paper. The double-pulse herein represents two closely conjoint pulses with 21 ns pulse duration and about 52 ns interpulse separation, which are acquired by temporal pulse shaping. Percussion drilling with such double-pulse is performed in stainless steel samples with different laser fluences, sample's thickness, repetition rates and ambient pressures. The experimental results show that the drilling rates of double-pulse drilling are more than one order of magnitude higher than that of conventional single-pulse drilling in air. Differences in the processing results between single-pulse and double-pulse with various processing parameters are investigated. In addition the ablation mechanisms of the double-pulse drilling are discussed.     

Optical fibre beam delivery of high-energy laser pulses: beam quality preservation and fibre end-preparation

This paper investigates the extension of optical fibre beam delivery to high-brightness applications, in particular laser percussion drilling, where both a good beam quality and high peak power are required. Beam quality preservation through a number of optical fibres is studied both experimentally and by using a ray propagation model. It is determined that in order to achieve the beam quality required for percussion drilling (M²<30) the largest fibre which can be used is 400 μm diameter. The laser-induced damage threshold is measured for a number of 400 μm fibres, and a CO₂ laser-annealing technique is shown to increase the damage threshold by a factor of 10, allowing 28 J, 1 ms pulses to be transmitted.     

A novel high-peak power double AO Q-switches pulse Nd:YAG laser for drilling

This paper reports on the characterization and analysis of a novel high power with double acousto-optical (AO) Q-switch pulse laser. It is shown that two AO Q-switches, in which acousto-fields are perpendicular to each other, switch-loss is nearly three times larger than one AO Q-switch, one time larger than the two AO Q-switches in which acousto-field are parallel. The laser pulse bursts, with 5–50 kHz repetition rate of the burst, typically 200 ns duration, 400 kW the peak power, 5 mm mrad beam parameter product, are obtained. Using the laser for drilling, the perfect drilling results are given to a thinner recast layer.     

Pulsed laser deposition—UV laser sources and applications

Progress in material research and processing industry is fueled by the technique of pulsed laser deposition (PLD). High energy excimer lasers enable this technique since every material is amenable to their high photon energies. Spectral properties, temporal pulse and laser beam parameters of state of the art excimer lasers will be compared with frequency converted Nd:YAG lasers. Both quality and longevity of the deposited layers strongly depend on the degree of accuracy achieved in the thin film ablation and subsequent deposition process.     

Enhanced efficiency and pulse-adjacency effects in high-repetition-rate laser machining

. We observed enhanced efficiency in the machining of copper using a high-repetition-rate (10 kHz) Q-switched Nd:YLF laser. A significant increase of machining efficiency (material removed per unit time) was observed when the speed of lateral translation of the thin copper sheet across the beam focus was decreased. We attribute this increased efficiency to effects caused by pulse adjacency (i.e. partial overlapping) of several pulses at a given point on the target surface. Several mechanisms which might be responsible for the effect are discussed. Similar results were observed in experiments on laser trepanning. The observed increases in ablation rates might lead to improvements in some industrial processes, e.g. laser drilling, cutting and marking. PACS 42.62.Cf; 79.20.Ds     

Laser drilling of thick material using femtosecond pulse with a focus of dual-frequency beam

Laser drilling is one of the basic, most frequently performed, material removal processes. The drilling aspect ratio is theoretically limited by the size and the focal depth of the machining laser spot. The aspect ratio can be improved by using dual focus. In this paper we describe a focus of two different frequencies based on the longitudinal chromatic aberration arisen when polychromatic collimated light is incident on a positive lens element. In the experiments, a Ti:Sapphire laser of 800 nm wavelength and 150 fs pulse duration was used as a source. Two tightly focused laser spots few hundred micrometers apart from each other were formed by focusing a combined collimated laser beam which contains the fundamental optic frequency and the second harmonic optic frequency. The focus of dual-frequency beam was used to drill a 3 mm thick PMMA plate. The drilling aspect ratio of a dual-frequency beam was compared to that of a focus of single frequency beam. Experimental results reveal that dual-frequency beam increases the aspect ratio and improves the drilling quality in terms of profile of the produced features.     

Spectral line competition in a coaxial electron-beam-pumped high pressure Ar/Xe laser

In order to study the kinetic mechanism of the e-beam pumped Ar/Xe laser, the temporal profiles of individual laser lines during multiline oscillation have been measured as a function of power deposition (1–12MW/cm³) and gas laser pressure (2–14 bar) using a short pulse (30 ns) coaxial electron beam as excitation source. It was found that the optimum output energy at each pressure was obtained at the same specific power deposition.Strong line competition has been observed between the 2.65 and 1.73 m transitions. In order to explain our results we suggest that besides electron collision mixing (ECM) between the 5d and 6p levels of Xe, there is also a redistribution between all 6p levels which strongly favours the lower levels at higher pumping densities.     

Timescales in the response of materials to femtosecond laser excitation

The interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with materials involves a number of special features that are different from laser–matter interaction for longer pulse durations. For femtosecond laser excitation the fundamental physical processes such as energy deposition, melting, and ablation are separated in time. By choosing proper time windows, the various processes can be investigated separately. We present selected examples of theoretical studies of free electron excitation in metals, timescales of different melting processes, and peculiarities of near-threshold ablation. Depending on the timescales and intensity ranges, the discussed processes are combined in an overall picture of possible pathways of the material from excitation to ablation. PACS 61.80.-x; 64.70.-p     

Excimer laser ablation of polyimide in a manufacturing facility

High power excimer laser ablation projection tools have been used successfully in IBM manufacturing for about four years. One hundred fifty W XeCL, 300 mJ per pulse and 500 mJ per pulse lasers, running at 500 Hz and 300 Hz, respectively, have been run successfully for over 2 billion pulses. Excimer laser projection ablation tools are very similar to photo-expose tools, and their similarities and differences are explained. The laser and its gas handling, beam delivery, beam homogenization, optics, debris, part handling, and maintenance are discussed.Presented at LASERION '91, June 12–14, 1991, München (Germany)     

激光对金属铜微孔加工的热力学过程研究

采用纳秒激光脉冲对铜金属进行了打孔实验,对微孔形貌进行了观察并对其热力学过程进行了相应的分析。研究表明,微孔的形貌是由凹坑和周围隆起组成,坑深随着脉冲能量的增加而增加。热力学分析表明,激光辐照金属打孔需要两个基本条件：一是激光脉冲能量的沉积,使金属材料发生熔化、汽化以及电离等相变,使得材料更容易去除;激光等离子体作为二次热源会更有效把激光脉冲能量耦合到金属表面;二是激光等离子体的冲击波效应,这种效应会把发生相变的材料有效及时排出,从而有效形成微孔。     

Moving heat source dynamics in laser drilling processes

A three-dimensional moving heat-source model is used to describe the effect of a focused laser beam in laser drilling processes. Using Green's function technique and assuming a plane disc approximation for the evaporation surface, general integral equations for the motion of this surface and equations for the temperature profile are derived. Conditions are found for the validity of simpler formulae where heat conduction losses may be neglected. This model takes into account the spatial and temporal parameters of the laser beam at the focal region, as well as the physical constants of the drilled material and its geometry. Calculations of the functionZ(t) describing the motion of the evaporation surface were done for pulsed ruby-laser parameters which were determined experimentally. Experimental data onZ(t) was obtained by measuring the time needed to pierce samples of different thicknesses. The maximum depth achieved was also measured. Results of calculations and of measurements for laser pulse energies of 1.8 and 5.0 Joules in aluminum, copper and lead under different focusing conditions are reported and compared.     

Evolution of hole depth and shape in ultrashort pulse deep drilling in silicon

We report on the temporal evolution of the percussion drilling process in deep laser drilling. Ultrashort laser pulses at 1030 nm and a duration of 8 ps were used to machine silicon while simultaneously imaging the silhouette of the hole using an illumination wavelength above the band edge. We investigate the influence of the processing parameters fluence and pulse energy on the depth and shape of the hole demonstrating different phases of the drilling process. In the first phase, a tapered hole is formed with highly reproducible shape and depth. In the following, the evolution of the hole shape is irregular and imperfections like bulges, changes of the drilling direction and the formation of multiple hole ends occur. In the final phase, the maximum depth stays constant while the volume still increases due to enlargement of the hole diameter and the possible formation of multiple hole ends. Deviations from the ideal hole shape occur primarily in the lower part of the hole. Their extent can be reduced by increasing the amount of applied pulse energy. Moreover, the pulse energy is chiefly determining the maximum achievable hole depth, which is largely independent of the focusing conditions and corresponding fluence.     

Repeatability characteristics of laser percussion drilling of stainless-steel sheets

An analysis on the repeatability of a laser percussion drilling process is conducted using a flash lamp pumped Nd:YAG laser on 2 mm thick stainless-steel sheets. Laser drilling process is finding increasingly widespread application in the industry and has continually attracted new interests to the industry in recent years. However, the inherent problem of hole geometry repeatability associated with laser percussion drilling is likely to limit the extent of industrial applications of the process. The characteristic of melt ejection is found to be dependent on the parameter setting and is shown to have a significant influence on entrance hole geometry and hence repeatability. The relationship between the percentage standard deviation of entrance hole diameter and the operating parameters is established, and varies between 1.8% and 5.6% in the operating range under this study.     

X-ray production by a laser plasma in a strong electric field

The X-ray emission of a laser plasma from metal targets in a 26 kV cm^–1 electric field is investigated experimentally. A substructure of the X-ray pulse, corresponding to the laser pulse train period is found. The spectrum of the radiation in the range 2–25 keV is measured.