Laser ablation inside transparent thin films

The laser interactions and processing of thin films is a rapidly growing area of research that serves broadly in microelectronic, display, photovoltaic, sensing and biological applications. Traditional concepts of laser marking, machining and scribing in opaque materials have been widely extended into transparent substrates or films to enable new approaches in printing or manufacturing by laser induced forward transfer (LIFT) [1] and other novel directions for catapulting single cells [2] and forming blisters [3] or microfluidic structures [4]. These approaches typically rely on inducing strong laser-plasma interactions internally at the interface of two media. In contrast, nonlinear optical interactions can be more flexibly positioned within the focal volume of short-pulsed lasers to drive new approaches for welding, writing optical circuits, or shaping three-dimensional opto-fluidic circuits inside transparent materials.