不同脉冲激光波形在打孔实验上的比较与分析

为了获得高质量小孔,克服单脉冲激光打孔的不足,设计了一种能够产生多脉冲激光波形的激光器电源.并在1mm厚的薄钢片上得到直径小于1mm的小孔.多脉冲打孔理论分析表明,多脉冲激光打孔不但减少了熔融物和等离子体的产生,而且降低了激光打孔对高能量的要求,获得的小孔质量优于单脉冲激光打孔.另外脉冲宽度和脉冲间距的选择对激光小孔加工质量起决定性作用,在加工高质量孔的时候,应该选用较短的激光脉冲宽度.实验表明,利用三脉冲激光输出波形打孔所获得的小孔质量要优于单脉冲激光打孔效果,有效脉冲平均能量为350mJ,宽度为100μs,脉冲间距为100μs.     

Energy efficiency of drilling granite and travertine with a CO2 laser and 980 nm diode laser

Using lasers to drill hard rock presents potential advantages compared to conventional mechanical drilling, such as higher penetration rates and reduced vibration. Before realistic drilling tools can be proposed, the influence of important parameters and the mechanisms involved in drilling different rocks with different lasers must be understood. In this work, we investigate the efficiency of laser drilling of granite and travertine with a CO₂ laser and a 980 nm fiber coupled diode laser. At the drilling surface, the maximum CW power delivered by the CO₂ laser was 140 W, while the diode laser delivered up to 215 W. Even at these modest power levels, it was possible to drill holes with diameters of the order of 8 mm at efficiencies varying from 40 kJ/cm³ to 150 kJ/cm³. The optimum laser exposure period of time was also investigated. Finally, x-ray diffraction and fluorescence analysis, as well as Tg (Thermogravimetry) and DTA (Differential Thermal Analysis) measurements, were performed on the rocks samples used.     

Femtosecond laser drilling of high-aspect ratio microchannels in?glass

A femtosecond laser is used to fabricate microchannels with high aspect ratios by laser direct ablation. Drilling both in air and in water is investigated. It is found that at low pulse energy, drilling in water can generate channels with high aspect ratios. However, at high pulse energy, water-assisted drilling stops working and only very shallow holes can be obtained. The reason for this is presented. On the contrary, the aspect ratio of holes drilled in air increases significantly at high pulse energy. The effects of writing speed and repeated fabrication are also investigated, and an optimum writing speed is determined for fixed laser parameters.     

Formation and Characteristics of Through Holes with Picosecond-Laser Helical Drilling on Alloy Material

Precision drilling can improve the microhole quality by yielding a reduced recast layer thickness and no heat-affected zone. We evaluate the quality of the helical drilled holes, e.g., the recast layer, microcracks, and circularity by scanning electron microscopy. We investigate the overlap rate of the laser beam and find its influence on the efficiency of through-hole machining. The microhole entrance, exit, and side walls are smooth, without an accumulation of spattering material and the formation of a recast layer and microcracks. Optimum parameters for drilling through holes on alloy material GH2132 are a thickness of 500 μm, a laser fluence of 3.06 · 10^?2 J/mm², a pulse repetition rate of 100 kHz, and a helical speed of 60 rev/s. The tapering phenomenon can be avoided by using a helical system with a rotating stage, and the hole circularity is fairly good. Picosecond laser helical drilling can be effective for manufacturing microholes with a high quality. The development of high-power picosecond laser would promote picosecond laser drilling with future industrial relevance.     

Detection of buried layers in silicon devices using LIBS during hole drilling with femtosecond laser pulses

Femtosecond laser micromachining together with Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) allows us to drill precise hole in materials to internal buried layers as well as characterize the materials while drilling. We report detection of a metal layer buried deep inside silicon by creating an access hole through the semiconductor. We used 800 nm femtosecond laser pulses to carry out the drilling while monitoring the plasma emission with a spectrometer system. Higher drilling rates of 1 μm per shot were achieved using a Gaussian laser beam profile with peak fluences of 42 J/cm². Lower drilling rates of 30 nm per pulse with better accuracy could be achieved using lower intensity flat top beam profiles at fluences of 1.4 J/cm².     

Femtosecond laser drilling of crystalline and multicrystalline silicon for advanced solar cell fabrication

The rear contact solar cell concept has been implemented to increase the solar cell efficiency. Practically, it necessitates rapid fabrication of a large number of via holes to form low-loss current paths. It is not a trivial task to drill a number of microscopic holes through a typical Si wafer of ??200???m thickness at reasonable processing throughput and yield. In this research, a femtosecond laser is employed to drill via holes in both crystalline silicon (c-Si) and multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) thin wafers of ??170???m thickness with various laser parameters such as number of laser shots and pulse energy. Since a significantly high pulse energy compared to ablation threshold is mainly applied, aiming to achieve a rapid drilling process, the femtosecond laser beam is subjected to complex non-linear characteristics. Therefore, the relative placement of the sample with respect to the laser focal position is also rigorously examined. While the non-linear effect at high pulse energy regime is complex, it also facilitates the drilling process in terms of achieving high-aspect ratio, for example, by extending the effective depth of focus by non-linear effect. Cross-sectional morphological analysis in conjunction with on-line emission and shadowgraph imaging are carried out in order to elucidate the drilling mechanism.     

A comprehensive study of the long pulse Nd:YAG laser drilling of multi-layer carbon fibre composites

The results of an extensive experimental study of the free running Nd:YAG laser drilling of a multi-layer carbon fibre composite, where adjacent layers have differently orientated fibres, are reported. For holes drilled with the laser operating in fixed-Q mode at 1064 nm, parallel sections of blind holes illustrating discontinuities in the hole size along a given section direction will be shown to occur at the interface between adjacent layers. An explanation for this effect is proposed. Detailed single pulse drilling characteristics will be presented illustrating the exit hole diameter as a function of pulse energy and material thickness. These characteristics illustrate a ‘stable' drilling regime in which the exit hole diameters are least sensitive to changes in pulse energy or material thickness and a less ‘stable' regime in which they are more strongly dependent on these parameters. Drilling characteristics will be given for two different beam qualities, illustrating the greater drilling depth and reduced hole size achievable with an improved beam quality. Finally holes drilled through a 2 mm thick sample of material with multiple pulses are considered. Size distribution curves for entrance and exit holes will be presented. The total energy required (number of pulses × pulse energy) to drill through 2 mm thick material will be reported as a function of pulse energy in stationary air and argon atmospheres and in a partial vacuum, illustrating a threshold energy which is dependent upon the drilling atmosphere. The threshold energies will be discussed with reference to plasma formation and the reactivity of the drilling atmosphere.     

Microhole machining of silicon wafer in air and under deionized water by pulsed UV laser system

The study investigated the laser microhole drilling performance of polycrystalline silicon using the trepanning drilling method combined with the helix swing path with varying parameters, including laser pulse energy, pulse repetition frequency, and galvanometric scan speed. A pulsed ultraviolet laser system was used in an atmospheric condition and under deionized water. Moreover, the trepanning method was used to obtain a larger via diameter. The surface morphology, taper angle, and melted residual high were evaluated using a three-dimensional confocal laser scanning microscope and field emission scanning electron microscope. This method can produce larger holes and can be applied to crystalline silicon, multicrystalline silicon, thin-film silicon, and other materials for photovoltaic applications.     

Laser through-hole drilling and laser cutting in teflon

We report a novel technique for laser high-speed drilling and cutting in teflon films. The new laser drilling surpasses the conventional techniques in simplicity, throughput and spatial resolution. The laser cutting and drilling process consists of three simple steps. First, a thin absorbing layer (in this case 300 Å of gold) is deposited on the teflon to allow for laser absorption. Second, the drilling is performed by pulsed-laser irradiation at the rate of one hole per pulse. The irradiation process does not completely open the holes in which debris still remain. Third, the ultrasonic cleaning in water is used to remove the modified and weakly bound material inside the drilled holes, leaving behind 50 m diameter through holes in 25 m thick teflon sheets. The drilling process-window is well mapped. The cutting process is obtained by fast scanning the laser beam at laser powers above a threshold value. This new technique is desirable for packaging because of its drilling speed as high as 60 000 holes per minute, its fast cutting and its low laser equipment cost.     

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.     

Simulation of rippled structure adjustments based on localized transient electron dynamics control by femtosecond laser pulse trains

This study investigates the effects of pulse energy distributions on subwavelength ripple structures (the ablation shapes and subwavelength ripples) using the plasma model with the consideration of laser particle–wave duality. In the case studies, the laser pulse (800 nm, 50 fs) trains consist of double pulses within a train with the energy ratios of 1:2, 1:1, and 2:1. Localized transient electron densities, material optical properties, and surface plasmon generation are strongly affected by the energy distributions. Hence, the adjustment of the ablation shape and subwavelength ripples can be achieved based on localized transient electron dynamics control during femtosecond laser pulse train processing of dielectrics. The simulation results show that better, more uniform structures, in terms of ablation shapes and subwavelength ripples, can be easily formed at a lower fluence or subpulse energy ratio of 1:1 with a fixed fluence. It is also found that pulse trains at a 1:1 energy ratio are preferred for drilling high-aspect-ratio microholes or microchannels.     

A statistical approach to determine process parameter impact in Nd:YAG laser drilling of IN718 and Ti-6Al-4V sheets

The numerous unique advantages afforded by pulsed Nd:YAG laser systems have led to their increasing utility for producing high aspect ratio holes in a wide range of materials. Notwithstanding the growing industrial acceptance of the technique, the increasingly tighter geometrical tolerances and more stringent hole quality requirements of modern industrial components demand that “defects” such as taper, recast, spatter etc., in laser-drilled holes are minimized. Process parameters like pulse energy, pulse repetition rate, pulse duration, focal position, nozzle standoff, type of gas and gas pressure of the assist gas are known to significantly influence hole quality during laser drilling. The present study reports the use of Taguchi design of experiments technique to study the effects of the above process variables on the quality of the drilled holes and ascertain optimum processing conditions. Minimum taper in the drilled hole was considered as the desired target response. The entire study was conducted in three phases:(a) screening experiments, to identify process variables that critically influence taper in laser drilled holes, (b) Optimization experiments, to ascertain the set of parameters that would yield minimum taper and (c) validation trials, to assess the validity of the experimental procedures and results. Results indicate that laser drilling with focal position on the surface of the material being drilled and employing low level values of pulse duration and pulse energy represents the ideal conditions to achieve minimum taper in laser-drilled holes. Thorough assessment of results also reveals that the laser-drilling process, optimized considering taper in the drilled hole as the target response, leads to very significant improvements in respect of other hole quality attributes of interest such as spatter and recast as well.     

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     

Moving perforation of rocks using long pulse Nd:YAG laser

Laser perforating is a new method in oil and gas wells where researchers look for an alternative to explosive methods. One of the important problems with this method is the generation of uniform and cylindrical holes at a selected pitch for enhancing the permeability of rocks. In non-moving laser perforation, the nozzle of the laser and the rock do not approach each other and due to laser convergence in a point, uniform and cylindrical holes are not created. For this reason, moving laser perforation is suggested in this research. One of the important parameters in moving laser perforation is the power of the laser that can be perforated at a specific rate. In this article we predicted the laser power for a definite rate of perforation (ROP) and then the accuracy of this prediction was evaluated to support the experiments. A pulsed Nd: YAG laser, with a pulse energy around 5.5 J, pulse repetition rate of 30 Hz and pulse duration of 2 ms were used for rock perforation in this study. The results shows that the presented relation for perforation could reliably be used in practice. Furthermore, by knowing the rate of perforation, the required laser power for consistent drilling could be calculated.     

Rapid micromachining of high aspect ratio holes in fused silica glass by high repetition rate picosecond laser

We present multiple methods of high aspect ratio hole drilling in fused silica glass, taking advantage of high power and high repetition rate picosecond lasers and flexible beam delivery methods to excise deep holes with minimal collateral damage. Combinations of static and synchronous scanning of laser focus were explored over a range of laser repetition rates and burst-train profiles that dramatically vary laser plume interaction dynamics, heat-affected zone, and heat accumulation physics. Chemically assisted etching of picosecond laser modification tracks are also presented as an extension from femtosecond laser writing of volume nanograting to form high aspect ratio (77) channels. Processing windows are identified for the various beam delivery methods that optimize the laser exposure over energy, wavelength, and repetition rate to reduce microcracking and deleterious heating effects. The results show the benefits of femtosecond laser interactions in glass extend into the picosecond domain, where the attributes of higher power further yield wide processing windows and significantly faster fabrication speed. High aspect ratio holes of 400 μm depth were formed over widely varying rates of 333 holes per second for mildly cracked holes in static-focal positioning through to one hole per second for low-damage and taper free holes in synchronous scanning.     

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.     

Numerical simulation of process dynamics during laser beam drilling with short pulses

In the last years, laser beam drilling became increasingly important for many technical applications as it allows the contactless production of high quality drill holes. So far, mainly short laser pulses are of industrial relevance, as they offer a good compromise between precision and efficiency and combine high ablation efficiency with low thermal damage of the workpiece. Laser beam drilling in this pulse length range is still a highly thermal process. There are two ablation mechanisms: evaporation and melt expulsion. In order to achieve high quality processing results, a basic process understanding is absolutely necessary. Yet, process observations in laser beam drilling suffer from both the short time scales and the restricted accessibility of the interaction zone. Numerical simulations offer the possibility to acquire additional knowledge of the process as they allow a direct look into the drill hole during the ablation process. In this contribution, a numerical finite volume multi-phase simulation model for laser beam drilling with short laser pulses shall be presented. The model is applied for a basic study of the ablation process with μs and ns laser pulses. The obtained results show good qualitative correspondence with experimental data.     

Diode pumped Nd:YAG laser with active Q-switching and mode locking for hole drilling

A diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser operating with active-passive Q-switch mode locking, has been developed. The acousto-optic repetition train was one kilohertz with generated pulse train widths 65 ns, single pulse widths 200 ps and an average power of 6.5 W. Improvement of efficiency of small diameter deep holes laser drilling in different materials was studied.     

Computational study of plasma-assisted photoacoustic response from gold nanoparticles irradiated by off-resonance ultrafast laser

The gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are capable of enhancing the incident laser field in the form of scattered near field for even an off-resonance irradiation where the incident laser wavelength is far away from the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). If the intensity of the pulse laser is large enough, this capability can be employed to generate a highly localized free electron (plasma) in the vicinity of the particles. The generated plasma can absorb more energy during the pulse, and this energy deposition can be considered as an energy source for structural mechanics calculations in the surrounding media to generate a photoacoustic (PA) signal. To show this, in this paper, we model plasma-mediated PA pressure wave propagation from a 100-nm AuNPs and the surrounding media irradiated by an ultrashort pulse laser. In this model, the AuNP is immersed in water and the laser pulse width is ranging from 70 fs to 2 ps at the wavelength of 800 nm (off-resonance). Our results qualitatively show the substantial impact of the energy deposition in plasma on the PA signal through boosting the pressure amplitudes up to ～1000 times compared to the conventional approach.     

Circular and rectangular via holes formed in SiC via using ArF based UV excimer laser

Circular via holes with diameters of 10, 25, 50 and 70 μm and rectangular via holes with dimensions of 10 μm × 100 μm, 20 μm × 100 μm and 30 μm × 100 μm and drilled depths between 105 and 110 μm were formed in 300 μm thick bulk 4H-SiC substrates by Ar/F₂ based UV laser drilling (λ = 193 nm) with a pulse width of ∼30 ns and a pulse frequency of 100 Hz. The drilling rate was linearly proportional to the fluence of the laser, however, the rate decreased for the larger via holes. The laser drilling produces much higher etch rates (229-870 μm/min) than conventional dry etching (0.2-1.3 μm/min) and the via entry can be tapered to facilitate subsequent metallization.