Metal surface structuring with spatiotemporally focused femtosecond laser pulses

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that using spatiotemporally focused femtosecond laser pulses enhances metal surface structuring quality by mitigating nonlinear self-focusing issues associated with loose focusing, thereby improving throughput and surface quality.

Contribution

It introduces the use of spatiotemporal focusing in femtosecond laser micromachining to improve surface quality and address nonlinear self-focusing during metal ablation.

Findings

Improved surface quality with spatiotemporal focusing.

Reduced nonlinear self-focusing effects.

Enhanced throughput in metal surface patterning.

Abstract

Femtosecond laser micromachining provides high precision and less thermal diffusion in surface structuring as a result of the ultrashort temporal duration and ultrahigh peak intensity of the femtosecond laser pulses. To increase the throughput of surface patterning, the focal spot size can be expanded with loose focusing, which, however, could lead to nonlinear self-focusing of the pulses when the pulses propagate in air. We solve the problem by use of spatiotemporally focused femtosecond laser pulses for ablation of metal surfaces, which gives rise to improved surface quality as compared with that obtained with the conventional focusing scheme.