Morphology and mechanisms of femtosecond laser-induced structural change in bulk transparent materials

Author

Schaffer, C.B. ; Jamison, A. ; Garcia, J.F. ; Ashcom, J.B. ; Mazur, E.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA, USA

fYear

2001

fDate

11-11 May 2001

Firstpage

445

Lastpage

446

Abstract

Summary form only given. When an intense femtosecond laser pulse is tightly focused into a transparent material, energy is deposited in the focal volume by nonlinear absorption. If enough energy is deposited, permanent structural change results. Characterization of the morphology of structural changes and identification of the mechanisms producing these changes represent essential steps in refining the femtosecond laser as a micromachining tool. We present a systematic study of structural changes produced in bulk glass by tightly-focused femtosecond pulses. Using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), we identify a transition from a structural change mechanism dominated by localized melting or bond-break to one dominated by an explosive expansion.

Keywords

high-speed optical techniques; laser beam machining; micromachining; optical focusing; optical microscopy; scanning electron microscopy; transparency; bulk transparent materials; femtosecond laser micromachining tool; femtosecond laser-induced structural change; femtosecond lasers; intense femtosecond laser pulse; micromachining; morphology; nonlinear absorption; optical microscopy; scanning electron microscopy; structural change; tightly focused; tightly-focused femtosecond pulses; transparent material; Absorption; Laser transitions; Morphology; Optical materials; Optical microscopy; Optical pulses; Pulsed laser deposition; Refining; Scanning electron microscopy; Ultrafast optics;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2001. CLEO '01. Technical Digest. Summaries of papers presented at the Conference on

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD, USA

Print_ISBN

1-55752-662-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEO.2001.948023

Filename

948023