Extremely high-aspect-ratio ultrafast Bessel beam generation and stealth dicing of multi-millimeter thick glass

TL;DR

This paper introduces an ultrafast beam shaper that produces high-aspect-ratio Bessel beams capable of precise, high-energy laser processing of thick glass, with potential applications in high-intensity laser physics.

Contribution

The development of a high-energy, high-aspect-ratio Bessel beam shaper that maintains a hot spot over 8 mm without intermediate focusing, enabling applications like stealth dicing of thick glass.

Findings

Achieved Bessel beams with aspect ratio over 10,000:1.

Demonstrated successful stealth dicing of 1 cm thick glass.

Generated high-energy Bessel beams up to Joule levels.

Abstract

We report on the development of an ultrafast beam shaper capable of generating Bessel beams of high cone angle that maintain a high-intensity hot spot with subwavelength diameter over a propagation distance in excess of 8~mm. This generates a high-intensity focal region with extremely high aspect ratio exceeding 10~000:1. The absence of intermediate focusing in the shaper allows for shaping very high energies, up to Joule levels. We demonstrate proof of principle application of the Bessel beam shaper for stealth dicing of thick glass, up to 1~cm. We expect this high energy Bessel beam shaper will have applications in several areas of high intensity laser physics.