Femtosecond laser micromachining and microfabrication in transparent materials - art. no. 68250K

We have realized three-dimensional micromachining and microfabrication in transparent materials with femtosecond laser pulses, including water-assisted drilling by ablation, hologram encoding by microexplosion, waveguide writing by refractive index increase, and nanoline and nanotip polymerization via two-photon absorption. With the water-assisted drilling, we showed that not only longitudinal holes in the laser beam propagation direction but also transverse holes perpendicular to laser beam could be drilled when the sample's rear surface was in contact with water. True three-dimensional microchannels and microchambers were fabricated. In addition, three-dimensional cutting of glass was realized with the water assistance. By using tightly focused pulse to induce microexplosion, permanent computer-generated holograms were directly written inside glass and the stored data were reconstructed by a He-Ne laser beam. A waveguide array was written inside glass by the laser induced refractive index increase, and coupling between these waveguides was observed. Nanoline and nanotips with sub-30nm feature-size were fabricated using resin SCR500 by two-photon photopolymerization.