Temporal focusing of spatially chirped femtosecond laser pulses overcomes previous limitations for ablating high aspect ratio features with low numerical aperture (NA) beams. Simultaneous spatial and temporal focusing reduces nonlinear interactions, such as self-focusing, prior to the focal plane so that deep (~1 mm) features with parallel sidewalls are ablated at high material removal rates (25 µm3 per 80 µJ pulse) at 0.04-0.05 NA. This technique is applied to the fabrication of microfluidic devices by ablation through the back surface of thick (6 mm) fused silica substrates. It is also used to ablate bone under aqueous immersion to produce craniotomies.
We analyze the structure of space-time focusing of spatially-chirped pulses using a technique where each frequency component of the beam follows its own Gaussian beamlet that in turn travels as a ray through the system. The approach leads to analytic expressions for the axially-varying pulse duration, pulse-front tilt, and the longitudinal intensity profile. We find that an important contribution to the intensity localization obtained with spatial-chirp focusing arises from the evolution of the geometric phase of the beamlets.
Simultaneous spatial temporal focusing (SSTF) is used to deliver microjoule femtosecond pulses with low numerical aperture geometries (<0.05 NA) with characteristics that are significantly improved compared to standard focusing paradigms. Nonlinear effects that would normally result in focal plane shifts and focal spot distortion are mitigated when SSTF is employed. As a result, it is shown that SSTF will enable surgical implementations that are presently inhibited.
Abstract:We analyze the structure of space-time focusing of spatiallychirped pulses using a technique where each frequency component of the beam follows its own Gaussian beamlet that in turn travels as a ray through the system. The approach leads to analytic expressions for the axiallyvarying pulse duration, pulse-front tilt, and the longitudinal intensity profile. We find that an important contribution to the intensity localization obtained with spatial-chirp focusing arises from the evolution of the geometric phase of the beamlets.
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