Theoretical and experimental research of femtosecond laser processing fused silica

The ablation threshold, depth and crater shape of fused silica for femtosecond laser processing are investigated theoretically and experimentally. Based on tracking the spatiotemporal distribution of the free electron density, free electron temperature, and laser intensity, the electron dynamics as well as the transient optical and thermophysical properties of femtosecond laser irradiated fused silica are quantitatively determined. The numerical model is validated by comparing the calculated threshold fluence, depth and crater shape of ablation with the experimentally measured ones at a wavelength of 800 nm. The free electron relaxation time at different laser fluences and pulse durations throughout the photoionization process and impact ionization process are probed. In the present work, the findings are as follows. 1) The electron relaxation time significantly affects the material optical properties and femtosecond laser energy absorption. The optical properties change dramatically. The fused silica becomes opaque for the case of laser irradiation with fluence higher than the ablation threshold. Moreover, the transition from electron-phonon collision to electron-ion collision accompanies with the femtosecond laser ablation of fused silica. 2) By using the proposed model, the experimentally observed saturation of ablation depth at high laser fluence is elucidated by the significant change of optical reflectivity and absorption coefficient. Both the results of theoretical simulation and experimental observation indicate that laser fluence has a strong influence on the shape of the ablation crater. The ablation volume increases sharply with the increase of laser fluence for femtosecond laser irradiation, compared with that for picosecond laser irradiation. 3) With the increase of femtosecond laser fluence, the ablation depth removal efficiency and ablation efficiency are both saturated, followed by slight decrements. The peak of ablation depth removal efficiency peak occurs at the femtosecond laser fluence close to 1.4 times of the ablation threshold. While the accuracy is slightly low due to the higher sensitivity of the ablation characteristics (ablation crater depth and ablation volume) to the shorter femtosecond laser pulse. For the femtosecond laser fluence higher than 3.5 times of the ablation threshold, good repeatability over a very wide fluence range can achieve accurate processing results, because a more consistent flat-bottom ablation profile tends to appear. However, the heat-affected zone leads the processing quality to degrade, compared with the scenario of femtosecond laser fluence close to the ablation threshold.