We applied the femtosecond laser-assisted etching technique, that is, irradiation of focused femtosecond
laser pulses followed by selective chemical etching, to volume removal inside sapphire.
At room temperature, volume etching only slightly advanced while residue remained inside the
volume. By increasing the etching temperature, complete volume etching without residue was
achieved. Complete etching was, however, accompanied by undesirable phenomena of surface pits
or cracks, which are expected to be excluded through further improvement of processing.
A model based on the evolution of electron density derived from the Fokker-Planck equation has been built to describe ablation of dielectrics during femtosecond laser pulses. The model is verified against an experimental investigation of borosilicate glass with a 200fs laser pulse centered at 780nm wavelength in a range of laser energies. The ablation mechanisms in dielectrics include multi-photon ionization (MPI) and avalanche ionization. MPI dominates the ionization process during the first stages of the laser pulse, contributing seed electrons which supply avalanche ionization. The avalanche process initiates and becomes responsible for the majority of free-electron generation. The overall material removal is shown to be highly dependent upon the optical response of the dielectric as plasma is formed. The ablation model is employed to predict the response of borosilicate glass to an enhanced electromagnetic field due to the presence of microspheres on the substrate surface. It is shown that the diffraction limit can be broken, creating nanoscale surface modification. An experimental study accompanies the model, with AFM and SEM characterizations that are consistent with the predicted surface modifications.
AbstractReal 3-D sub-νm lithography was performed with two-photon polymerization (2PP) using inorganic-organic hybrid polymer (ORMOCER®) resins. The hybrid polymers were synthesized by hydrolysis/polycondensation reactions (modified sol-gel synthesis) which allows one to tailor their material properties towards the respective applications, i.e., dielectrics, optics or passivation. Due to their photosensitive organic functionalities, ORMOCER®s can be patterned by conventional photo-lithography as well as by femtosecond laser pulses at 780 nm. This results in polymerized (solid) structures where the non-polymerized parts can be removed by conventional developers.ORMOCER® structures as small as 200 nm or even below were generated by 2PP of the resins using femtosecond laser pulses. It is demonstrated that ORMOCER®s have the potential to be used in components or devices built up by nm-scale structures such as, e.g., photonic crystals. Aspects of the materials in conjunction to the applied technology are discussed.
Three-Dimensional Residue-Free Volume Removal inside Sapphire by High-Temperature Etching aftercmd="newline" Irradiation of Femtosecond Laser Pulses