Nanosecond and femtosecond excimer laser ablation of fused silica

Ablation of fused silica using standard excimer lasers (20–30 ns pulse duration at 193, 248, and 308 nm) and a short pulse laser system (500 fs at 248 nm) is reported. Ablation rates range from several hundred nm/pulse (193 nm or fs-laser) up to about 6 m/pulse (308 nm). The performance of the ablation is found to depend not only on wavelength and pulse duration but also on the existing or laser induced surface quality (e.g., roughness) of the material. Special ablation phenomena are observed. At 193 nm and moderate fluence (3 J/cm²) ablation takes place at the rear side of a plate without affecting the front side, whereas at higher fluence normal ablation at the front side occurs. At 248 nm (standard excimer) the existence of two consecutive ablation phases is observed: smooth ablation at low rate is followed by explosive ablation at high rate. Using fs-pulses smooth shaped holes are formed during the first pulses, whereas high pulse numbers cause the development of a ripple structure in the ablation craters.The results lead to the conclusion that two different ablation mechanisms are involved: the first is based on two photon bulk absorption, the second on controlled surface damage in relation with (partially laser induced) singularity conditions at the surface.Presented at LASERION '91, June 12–14, 1991, München (Germany)     

Excimer laser surface treatment of bulk ceramics

Changes of surface morphology following excimer laser (KrF, ArF) irradiation were investigated for three technical ceramic materials (TZP, PSZ, Si₃N₄). Zirconia samples exhibit a smooth and glass-like surface at the low power density regime, while at higher power densities colour changes were observed due to changes in the chemical composition of the bulk material. In the silicon nitride samples new crystals of specific orientation are formed, which could be crystalline silicon.     

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)     

Single-shot UV-laser ablation of polyimide with variable pulse lengths

Single-shot laser ablation of polyimide has been investigated with UV-Ar⁺-laser radiation ( = 270-315 nm) for pulse lengths between 140 ns and 5 µs. The irradiated polymer surface was studied with respect to its morphology and ablated depth by means of atomic force microscopy. The dependence of the ablation threshold on laser pulse-length and intensity can be tentatively interpreted on the basis of a thermal process and a (thermal or non-thermal) mechanism which diminishes the activation energy for the desorption of species from the surface.     

Patterning of YBCO films by excimer-laser ablation

Thin films of YBa₂Cu₃O₇ coated with a photoresist have been patterned by means of XeCl- and KrF-excimer-laser light projection. Lines with widths down to 3.5 m have been fabricated without degradation in T _c and j _c. The technique is compared with wet-chemical etching and with ns and fs excimer-laser patterning of films without a protective layer.     

Dual-beam ablation of fused quartz using 266 nm and VUV lasers with different delay-times

Received: 20 August 1996/Accepted: 5 November 1996     

High-speed machining of glass materials by laser-induced plasma-assisted ablation using a 532-nm laser

+ :YAG laser (532 nm). The plasma generated from a silver (Ag) target by the laser irradiation effectively assists in ablation of the fused quartz substrate by the same laser beam, although the laser beam is transparent to the substrate. A grating with a cross-sectional shape like a square-wave (period ≈ 20 μm) is achieved using the mask projection technique. The ablation rate reaches several tens nm/pulse. In addition, LIPAA is applied to high-speed hole drilling (700 μm in diameter) of fused-quartz (0.5 mm thick) and Pyrex glass (0.5 mm thick). Received: 25 May 1998/Accepted: 19 June 1998     

Laser-induced plasma-assisted ablation of fused quartz using the fourth harmonic of a Nd+:YAG laser

+ :YAG laser (266 nm) is reported. With the assistance of plasma resulting from laser irradiation on a metal target, the fused-quartz substrate is easily etched by the 266-nm laser beam in spite of the fact that the substrate is transparent to this wavelength. In contrast, no ablation takes place without the metal target, but damage is generated on the substrate surface. The ablated region is observed by optical microscopy and scanning probe microscopy (SPM), which reveal a fine grating structure (line spacing of 20 μm) without any severe damage. A series of experiments on the dependence of the ablation rate and the threshold laser fluence on ablation parameters, such as laser fluence, the number of pulses, and the distance between the fused quartz and the metal target is performed. On the basis of the results, three possible mechanisms of direct plasma interaction, plasma heating, and metal film deposition are discussed. Received: 27 February 1998/Accepted: 5 June 1998     

Direct photoetching of single crystal SiC by VUV-266 nm multiwavelength laser ablation

2 O₂:H₂O and HF:H₂O. The analysis of the etched samples by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and scanning probe microscopy (SPM) indicates that an array of square holes having well-defined patterned structures and clean substrate surfaces were obtained. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicates that the SiC samples etched by VUV-266 nm multiwavelength laser have a similar stoichiometry after chemical post-treatment as the virgin SiC. The mechanism of high-quality ablation using VUV-266 nm multiwavelength laser is discussed in comparison with ablation using 266 nm single wavelength. The chemical post-treatment contributes to removing the residues from the laser photolysis of SiC. Received: 26 August 1996/Accepted: 17 October 1996     

Nanosecond and femtosecond UV laser ablation of polymers: Influence of molecular weight

We examine the nanosecond and femtosecond UV laser ablation of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as a function of molecular weight (M_w). For laser ablation with nanosecond laser pulses, at the excimer wavelengths 248 nm and 193 nm, we show that high temperatures develop; yet the dynamics of material ejection differs depending on polymer M_w. The results on the nanosecond ablation of polymers are accounted within the framework of bulk photothermal model and the results of molecular dynamics simulations. Turning next to the 248 nm ablation with 500 fs laser pulses, the ablation threshold and etching rates are also found to be dependent on polymer M_w. In addition, ablation results in morphological changes of the remaining substrate. Plausible mechanisms are advanced.     

Laser-induced etching of polycrystalline Al2O3TiC in KOH aqueous solution

Laser-induced etching of polycrystalline Al₂–O₃TiC material by a tightly-focused cw Ar ion laser has been investigated in a KOH solution with different concentrations. It is found that the KOH concentration can strongly affect the etching quality where low KOH concentration can result in rough and irregular patterns. Laser-induced etching of polycrystalline Al₂O₃TiC in a KOH solution is found to be a photothermal reaction in which a threshold laser power exists. With an appropriate set of etching parameters, well-defined grooves can be obtained with clean side walls and with an etching rate up to several hundred micrometers per second. The etching behavior is also found to depend on laser scanning direction. It is also found that the grains in the polycrystalline Al₂O₃TiC material play an important role in the etching dynamics and etching quality. This etching process is believed to be applicable to the formation of a slider surface of magnetic heads in the future.     

Direct writing and in-situ material processing by a laser-micromachining projection microscope

The new laser micromachining projection microscope enables a surface to be viewed at high magnification with a built-in facility for micromachining of the same surface according to a predetermined pattern. A XeCl-excimer laser forms part of the device and provides bright viewing illumination in amplified spontaneous emission as well as a small laser spot of sufficient fluence to mark the sample surface. The basic characteristics of image enhancement in the excimer amplifier are presented. The advantage of such a technique for both pattern generation, surface cleaning and mask correction is demonstrated on Al, Cu and W specimens with a spatial resolution better than 3 m.     

External-field-controlled laser wet etching of polycrystalline Al2O3TiC

Laser-induced etching of polycrystalline Al₂O₃TiC material by tightly focused CW Ar ion laser has been investigated in both H₃PO₄ and KOH solutions with influence of an external electric field. It is found that a weak external electric field will change the ions distribution in chemical solutions and cause obvious change in etching behavior. The laser etching in a H₃PO₄ solution can be enhanced by both positive and negative biases of the substrate. While etching in a KOH solution, a positive bias can enhance the etching reaction, whereas a negative bias can suppress the etching process. It is also found that the external electric field can always enhance the mass transfer between reaction products and fresh etchant in a H₃PO₄ solution. It is revealed that the supply of H⁺ ions contributes to the etching process in a H₃PO₄ solution, while the supply of OH^– ions contributes to the etching process in a KOH solution. The electric field can be used to control the etching process to achieve fast tuning and higher accuracy.     

Thermal lens and its effects in copper-vapor lasers

We have analyzed and measured the thermal lens of the copper-vapor laser by considering both its windows and active medium. The equivalent combined focal length varies with operation parameters and it is sensitive to the laser geometry. The results are verified by our measurements on a 20 W device with 35 mm internal diameter tube. The thermal lens effects on the beam properties are analyzed and verified with the experiments for both oscillator and laser chain case.     

Sub-picosecond UV-laser ablation of Ni films

Laser ablation of thin Ni films on fused silica by 0.5 ps KrF-excimer-laser pulses at 248 nm is reported. The onset of material removal from different film thicknesses (0.1, 0.3, 0.6 and 1.0 m) was measured in a laser ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer by the amount of Ni atoms vs laser fluence. Significant amounts of metal atoms are already evaporated at laser fluences around 20 mJ/cm², a threshold up to 100 times smaller compared to the one for 14 ns pulses. In contrast to ns laser pulses, the ablation threshold for 0.5 ps pulses is independent of the film thickness. These results reflect the importance of thermal diffusion in laser ablation of strongly absorbing and thermally good conducting materials and prove that for ablation with short pulses, energy loss to the bulk is minimized.     

Flat-top profile of an excimer-laser beam generated using beam-splitter gratings

We present a simple solution to the beam-shaping problem in which a wide, typically rectangular spatial distribution of an excimer-laser beam should be transformed into a flat-top distribution, a few millimeters wide in both directions. The set-up can be made practically lossless and it allows the energy density of the pulse to be increased by a factor of 50. The method finds use, e.g., in pulsed laser deposition, UV lithography and micro machining.     

Optodynamic analysis of direct laser writing of graduation lines

The direct laser writing of graduation lines in Cr thin films on glass substrates has been investigated. The Nd-YAG laser and the astigmatic optical system have been used to write rectangular holes in the Cr film. The optimal writing parameters: the laser pulse energy, the Cr layer thickness and the substrate-objective distance were determined using the optoacoustic probe beam deflection method to detect the evaporation of the material. The evaporation is concluded to be the essential process in the laser writing of graduation lines. The rims formed by the surface tension gradient at the hole edges indicate that the laser writing of graduation lines is a typical two-phase removal process.     

Modeling and computer simulation of pulsed-laser-induced ablation

Received: 21 April 1998 / Accepted: 21 September 1998 / Published online: 24 February 1999     

Ablation characteristics of aluminum oxide and nitride ceramics during femtosecond laser micromachining

Femtosecond laser ablation of aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) and aluminum nitride (AlN) ceramics was performed under normal atmospheric conditions (λ = 785 nm, τ_p = 185 fs, repetition rate = 1 kHz), and threshold laser fluencies for single- and multi-pulse ablation were determined. The ablation characteristics of the two ceramics showed similar trends except for surface morphologies, which revealed virtually no melting in Al₂O₃ but clear evidence of melting for AlN. Based on subsequent X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses, the chemistry of these ceramics appeared to remain the same before and after femtosecond laser ablation.     

Spectrophonic humidity-trace detection in hydrogen and air

A spectrophone with low resonant frequency compatible with the repetition frequency of a pulsed discharge CO laser is described. The spectrophone is used for humidity detection in hydrogen and air. The simple and inexpensive system provides a detection capacity of 10–100ppb/ . The responsivity of the resonant spectrophone is interpreted taking the dependence of the acoustical quality factor on the geometry into account.