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Modern ultrashort pulse lasers with scanning systems provide a huge set of parameters affecting the suitability for dental applications. The present study investigates thresholds and ablation rates of oral hard tissues and restorative materials with a view towards a clinical application system. The functional system consists of a 10 W Nd:YVO4 laser emitting pulses with a duration of 8 ps at 1,064 nm. Measurements were performed on dentin, enamel, ceramic, composite, and mammoth ivory at a repetition rate of 500 kHz. By employing a scanning system, square-shaped cavities with an edge length of 1 mm were created. Ablation threshold and rate measurements were assessed by variation of the applied fluence. Examinations were carried out employing a scanning electron microscope and optical profilometer. Irradiation time was recorded by the scanner software in order to calculate the overall ablated volume per time. First high power ablation rate measurements were performed employing a laser source with up to 50 W. Threshold values in the range of 0.45 J/cm(2) (composite) to 1.54 J/cm(2) (enamel) were observed. Differences between any two materials are statistically significant (p < 0.05). Preparation speeds up to 37.53 mm(3)/min (composite) were achieved with the 10 W laser source and differed statistically significant for any two materials (p < 0.05) with the exception of dentin and mammoth ivory (p > 0.05). By employing the 50 W laser source, increased rates up to ∼50 mm(3)/min for dentin were obtained. The results indicate that modern USPL systems provide sufficient ablation rates to be seen as a promising technology for dental applications.

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High-precision micromachining with picosecond lasers became an established process. Power scaling led to industrial lasers, generating average power levels well above 50 W for applications like structuring turbine blades, micro moulds, and solar cells. In this paper we report, how a smart distribution of energy into groups of pulses can significantly improve ablation rates for some materials, also providing a better surface quality. Machining micro moulds in stainless steel, a net ablation rate of ~1 mm³/min is routinely achieved, e.g. using pulse energy of 200 µJ at a repetition rate of 200 kHz. This is industrial standard, and demonstrates an improvement by two orders of magnitude over the recent years.When the energy was distributed to a burst of 10 pulses (25 µJ), repeated with 200 kHz, the ablation rate of stainless steel was 5 times higher with the same 50 W average power. Bursts of 10 pulses repeated with 1 MHz (5 µJ) even resulted in an ablation rate as high as 12 mm³/min. In addition, optimized pulse delays achieved a reduction of the surface roughness by one order of magnitude, providing Ra values as low as 200 nm. Similar results were performed machining silicon, scaling the ablation rate from 1.2 mm³/min (1 pulse, 250 µJ, 200 kHz) to 15 mm³/min (6 pulses, 8 µJ, 1 MHz). Burst machining of ceramics, copper and glass did not change ablation rates, only improved surface quality. For glass machining, we achieved record-high ablation rates of >50 mm³/min, using a new state-of-the-art laser which could generate >70 W of average power and repetition rates as high as 2 MHz

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