Ultrafast two-color ablation of fused silica

Two ultrafast laser pulses at the fundamental Ti:sapphire laser wavelength of 800 nm and the second harmonic at 400 nm were used to study the temporal evolution of the transmissivity in fused silica and resulting material ablation. It was observed that there was a sharp drop in the transmissivity of the probe pulse at zero delay between the two pulses, indicating that there was enhanced absorption/reflection due to the creation of defect states or free electron plasma by the pump pulse. Subsequent atomic force microscopy measurements of the ablated holes revealed that the ablated volume increased by about 50% when the separations of the two pulses are within 300 fs. Two-color machining of channels at the surface also showed a similar increase in the machined depth and width when the pulses are overlapped in time. PACS 52.38.Mf; 78.47.+p; 79.20.Ds     

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)     

Femtosecond laser near field ablation

The high field strength of femtosecond laser pulses leads to nonlinear effects during the interaction with condensed matter. One such effect is the ablation process, which can be initiated below the threshold of common thermal ablation if the excitation pulses are sufficiently short. This effect leads to structure formation, which is anisotropic because of the polarization properties of the near field and can result in pattern sizes below the resolution limit of light. These effects are explored by temporally resolved scattering methods and by post‐mortem analysis to show the non‐thermal and anisotropic nature of this process. The near‐field distribution of plasmon modes can be tailored to a large extent in order to obtain control of the pattern formation.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of ultrafast laser ablation of fused silica film

Ultrafast laser ablation of fused silica is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. Ionization and generation of free electrons, absorption of the laser energy by free electrons and energy coupling between free electrons and ions are considered. The BKS potential is applied and modified to describe molecular interactions and the effect of free electrons. Smooth particle mesh of the Ewald method (SPME) is adopted to calculate the Coulomb force. It is found that the electrostatic Coulomb force, which is caused by the ionization, plays an important role in the laser ablation process.     

Laser backside etching of fused silica due to carbon layer ablation

The backside ablation of a absorbing carbon layer onto fused silica is studied in air and water confinement in comparison. The confinement influences the etch rate and the laser fluence dependence of the etch rate significantly while the threshold fluence is almost the same. The different confinement of the laser induced plasma results in the observed rate saturation in the case of air and in a linear growing rate in the case of water confinement at medium laser fluences. The less dense air confinement permits a faster plasma expansion of the laser plume than in the case of water confinement and effects consequently the interaction time and interaction strength of the laser plume with the fused silica surface. The differences in the laser-plasma-substrate interaction cause the observed rate saturation at weak interaction (air) and the growing etch rate at strong interaction (water). Thus, the confinement situation controls the interaction process in the case of backside ablation and should be considered in indirect material processing methods such as LIBWE and LESAL, too. PACS 81.65.C; 81.05.K; 79.20.D; 61.80.B; 42.55.L; 68.45.D     

Incubation of laser ablation in fused silica with 5-fs pulses

The threshold fluences for laser-induced damage of fused silica with single 5-fs pulses from a Ti:sapphire laser system were determined by extrapolating the ablated volume to zero. These thresholds are about 4 times as high as the values previously obtained from multi-shot experiments. This result is interpreted in terms of an irreversible modification of the original material below the single-shot threshold (incubation). Received: 14 June 1999 / Accepted: 24 June 1999 / Published online: 8 September 1999     

One-step microfabrication of fused silica by laser ablation of an organic solution

2 and an acetone solution containing pyrene at a concentration of 0.4 mol/dm³. The threshold fluence was 240 mJ/cm², which is about one-fortieth lower than that obtained with conventional KrF laser ablation. Received: 7 September 1998/Accepted: 9 September 1998     

光学元件兆声辅助化学刻蚀工艺参数优化

对传统的静态刻蚀方法进行了改进,提出了一种光学元件兆声辅助化学刻蚀新方法,并对传统静态刻蚀与兆声辅助化学刻蚀效果进行了对比分析,综合考虑刻蚀液的配比、刻蚀时间、添加活性剂种类和功率对光学元件激光损伤阈值的影响,通过正交设计实验优选出最佳的兆声辅助化学刻蚀工艺参数。结果表明：兆声清洗对各类杂质的去除效果要明显好于手工擦洗,兆声辅助化学刻蚀比传统的静态刻蚀有更高的刻蚀速率,在兆声的作用下刻蚀液能够进入到传统静态刻蚀难以进入的微裂纹中,对微裂纹等缺陷的刻蚀效果更为明显,能够将熔石英元件激光损伤阈值进一步提高。     

飞秒激光烧蚀石英玻璃的实验与理论研究

实验研究了800nm飞秒激光作用下石英玻璃的破坏机理和烧蚀规律，给出了破坏阈值与脉冲宽度的关系.发展了雪崩击穿模型，计算了材料的烧蚀阈值与脉冲宽度的依赖关系，烧蚀深度、烧蚀体积与脉冲能量的依赖关系，研究了导带电子的扩散对材料中激光能量的沉积、分布，以及材料的破坏阈值和烧蚀规律的影响. 关键词： 飞秒激光脉冲 破坏机理 石英玻璃 电子扩散     

熔石英表面划痕附近电磁场分布模拟分析

 亚表面缺陷是造成固体激光器光学器件损伤阈值过低的重要原因，而表面划痕是缺陷中重要的一种。使用时域有限差分方法（FDTD）模拟了熔石英表面圆柱形、三角形划痕对激光电磁场的调制作用，绘出了2维电磁场强度分布图，计算出划痕尺寸不同时电磁场的最大强度。数值计算结果表明，尺寸为二倍波长的划痕可以获得最大的电磁场强度，此时容易导致自聚焦；亚波长级和足够大尺寸的划痕作用基本可以忽略。一定尺寸的划痕，深度越大，最大场强也越大，但当划痕过深时最大场强反而会降低。     

熔石英表面划痕附近电磁场分布模拟分析

亚表面缺陷是造成固体激光器光学器件损伤阈值过低的重要原因,而表面划痕是缺陷中重要的一种。使用时域有限差分方法（FDTD）模拟了熔石英表面圆柱形、三角形划痕对激光电磁场的调制作用,绘出了2维电磁场强度分布图,计算出划痕尺寸不同时电磁场的最大强度。数值计算结果表明,尺寸为二倍波长的划痕可以获得最大的电磁场强度,此时容易导致自聚焦;亚波长级和足够大尺寸的划痕作用基本可以忽略。一定尺寸的划痕,深度越大,最大场强也越大,但当划痕过深时最大场强反而会降低。     

The electric field modulation by three-dimensional crack on fused silica subsurface

The main factor of laser-induced damage is the modulation to electromagnetic field of laser by the crack on the subsurface. In this paper, a three-dimensional crack model on the exit surface is presented. Three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is employed to simulate the electric field intensity distribution in the vicinity of crack on fused silica subsurface. The roles of the crack width, depth, length and the gradient angle in the modulation to the incident light field are analyzed in detail. Results show that the crack size plays an important role in the electric modulation. With the increasing depth and width, the peak value of maximal electric field intensity appears in fused silica. However, the maximal electric field intensity tends to be a constant when the crack length reaches 1 μm. Besides, the enhancement of light intensity becomes obvious when total internal reflection occurs in fused silica. Our calculated results provide an advisable theoretical criterion to the corresponding experiment.     

Subpicosecond laser ablation of copper and fused silica: Initiation threshold and plasma expansion

We investigated the subpicosecond laser ablation of copper and fused silica under 100 fs laser irradiation at 800 nm in vacuum by means of fast plume imaging and time- and space-resolved optical emission spectroscopy. We found that, to the difference of copper ablation, the laser-generated plasma from a fused silica target exhibited one “main” component only. The “slow” plasma component, observed during copper ablation and usually assigned to optical emission from nanoparticles was not detected by either plasma fast imaging or optical emission spectroscopy even when fused silica targets were submitted to the highest incident fluences used in our experiments. The characteristic expansion velocity of this unique component was about three times larger than the velocity of the fast plume component observed during copper ablation. The dependence of laser fluence on both plasma expansion and ablation rate was investigated and discussed in terms of ablation efficiency and initiation mechanisms.     

Dye assisted enhanced transmission in near field optical lithography

Surface plasmon lithography using embedded-amplitude masks has received considerable attention in recent times for its ability to produce high density features with resolution beyond diffraction limit. However plasmon damping caused due to intrinsic metal absorption restricts the achievable aspect ratio of the fabricated features. One possible way to rectify this issue is to use a gain medium to amplify the surface plasmons and thereby increase their propagation length. In this context this paper proposes a novel concept of employing dye medium to enhance plasmon propagation in mask based surface plasmon lithography, so as to obtain higher transmission depth in the writing medium. The proposed concept is supported by numerical simulations and the results obtained indicate a 14.5 fold field enhancement in presence of dye (gain) medium.     

熔石英后表面坑点型划痕对光场调制的近场模拟

建立了坑点型划痕的旋转抛物面模型, 用三维时域有限差分方法研究了熔石英后表面坑点型划痕随深度、 宽度、 间距以及酸蚀量变化对波长λ =355 nm入射激光的调制.研究表明, 这类划痕调制最强区位于相邻两坑点的连接区, 且越靠近表面调制越强.当其宽深比为2.0---3.5、 坑点间距约为坑点宽度的1/2时, 可获得最大光场调制, 最大光强增强因子(LIEF)为11.53; 当坑点间距大于坑点宽度时, 其调制大为减弱, 相当于单坑的场调制.对宽为60δ (δ =λ/12), 深和间距均为30δ的坑点型划痕进行刻蚀模拟, 刻蚀过程中最大LIEF为11.0, 当间距小于300 nm时, 相邻坑点由于衍射形成场贯通.     

Dual-beam ablation of fused silica by multiwavelength excitation process using KrF excimer and F2 lasers

A new technique of dual-beam laser ablation of fused silica by multiwavelength excitation process using a 248-nm KrF excimer laser (ablation beam) coupled with a 157-nm F₂ laser (excitation beam) in dry nitrogen atmosphere is reported. The dual-beam laser ablation greatly reduced debris deposition and, thus, significantly improved the ablation quality compared with single-beam ablation of the KrF laser. High-quality ablation can be achieved at the delay times of KrF excimer laser irradiation shorter than 10 ns due to a large excited-state absorption. The ablation rate can reach up to 80 nm/pulse at the fluence of 4.0 J/cm² for the 248-nm laser and 60 mJ/cm² for the F₂ laser. The ablation threshold and effective absorption coefficient of KrF excimer laser are estimated to be 1.4 J/cm² and 1.2᎒⁵ cm^-1, respectively.     

Local field enhancement near spherical nanoparticles in absorbing media

It is shown by numerical simulation that the enhancement of the field near metallic nanoparticles is most significant in the transparency region of the matrix material and falls off as the absorption coefficient rises. In an absorbing matrix medium this leads both to an increase in the fraction of energy absorbed by the matrix material and to a substantial transformation in its spectral distribution. This is illustrated for the case of copper phthalocyanine with silver nanoparticles. By choosing the size of the introduced plasmon nanoparticles it is possible to enhance the absorption in the visible for the materials used in solar cells and thereby increase their energy efficiency.     

Optical modulation of repaired damage site on fused silica produced by CO_2 laser rapid ablation mitigation

CO_2 laser rapid ablation mitigation(RAM) of fused silica has been used in high-power laser systems owing to its advantages of high efficiency, and ease of implementing batch and automated repairing. In order to study the effect of repaired morphology of RAM on laser modulation and to improve laser damage threshold of optics, an finite element method(FEM) mathematical model of 351 nm laser irradiating fused silica optics is developed based on Maxwell electromagnetic field equations, to explore the 3D near-field light intensity distribution inside optics with repaired site on its surface. The influences of the cone angle and the size of the repaired site on incident laser modulation are studied as well. The results have shown that for the repaired site with a cone angle of 73.3°, the light intensity distribution has obvious three-dimensional characteristics. The relative light intensity on z-section has a circularly distribution, and the radius of the annular intensification zone increases with the decrease of z. While the distribution of maximum relative light intensity on y-section is parabolical with the increase of y. As the cone angle of the repaired site decreases, the effect of the repaired surface on light modulation becomes stronger, leading to a weak resistance to laser damage. Moreover, the large size repaired site would also reduce the laser damage threshold. Therefore, a repaired site with a larger cone angle and smaller size is preferred in practical CO_2 laser repairing of surface damage. This work will provide theoretical guidance for the design of repaired surface topography, as well as the improvement of RAM process.     

Local field enhancements on gold and silver nanostructures for aperture near field spectroscopy

Optical properties of silver and gold semi-continuous films near the percolation threshold are investigated by scanning near field optical microscopy (SNOM) operating in the collection/transmission mode. The electromagnetic enhanced fields, due to plasmon-polariton localizations, are observed and the intensity distribution is shown to present high intensity variations that increase with the wavelength. The local fields are also demonstrated to be polarization dependent. The intensity distribution is investigated as function of the incident wavelength both for gold and silver films. The calculated probability distribution function (PDF) exhibits an exponential decay for large enhancement factors and is proved to be wavelength dependent.