Simultaneous spatial and temporal focusing optical vortex pulses for micromachining through optically transparent materials

Abstract

We introduce the optical vortex beam into simultaneous spatial and temporal focusing (SSTF) technique, and theoretically and experimentally demonstrate the local control of peak intensity distribution at the focus of a simultaneous spatiotemporally focused optical vortex (SSTF OV) beam. To avoid nonlinear self-focusing in the conventional focusing scheme, a spatiotemporally focused femtosecond laser vortex beam was employed to achieve doughnut-shaped ablation and high aspect ratio (∼28) microchannels on the back surface of 3 mm thick soda-lime glass and fused silica substrates.