Metal processing with ultrashort laser pulses

Abstract

Femtosecond laser ablation has been shown to produce well-defined cuts and holes in metals with minimal heat effect to the remaining material. Ultrashort laser pulse processing shows promise as an important technique for materials processing. We will discuss the physical effects associated with processing based experimental and modeling results. Intense ultra-short laser pulse (USLP) generates high pressures and temperatures in a subsurface layer during the pulse, which can strongly modify the absorption. We carried out simulations of USLP absorption versus material and pulse parameters. The ablation rate as function of the laser parameters has been estimated. Since every laser pulse removes only a small amount of material, a practical laser processing system must have high repetition rate. We will demonstrate that planar ablation is unstable and the initially smooth crater bottom develops a corrugated pattern after many tens of shots. The corrugation growth rate, angle of incidence and the polarization of laser electric field dependence will be discussed. In the nonlinear stage, the formation of coherent structures with scales much larger than the laser wavelength was observed. Also, there appears to be a threshold fluence above which a narrow, nearly perfectly circular channel forms after a few hundred shots. Subsequent shots deepen this channel without significantly increasing its diameter. The role of light absorption in the hole walls will be discussed.