Product Code: ICAL05_M103

Laser Processing of Optical Materials: Drilling, Dicing and Modifying Thin Glass (Invited Paper)
Authors:
David Ashkenasi, LMTB; Berlin Germany
Presented at ICALEO 2005

Laser processing of optical materials is becoming increasingly important. In addition to infrared CO2-laser stress-related dicing of float glass, applications using DPSSL lasers are slowly coming into focus of attention. Utilizing non-linear absorption channels, ns-pulsed green (532nm) laser light can actually drill and cut glass in different thickness, depending on fluence, feed rate and pulse width. This characterizes a very interesting processing alternative for certain types of optical materials and/or geometric conditions, where standard processing methods demonstrate severe limitations. Application near processing examples of thin glass using ca. 10W of ns laser light at 532nm will be presented and discussed.
In addition, ultra short laser pulses with high peak power and moderate single pulse energy introduce new channels of non-linear optical effects, which lead to local and perhaps very specific material reactions inside the bulk. The nature of modification depends strongly on the excitation condition and material involved. Ultra-short laser pulses can modify the optical properties of transparent materials without introducing the typical stress-related features such as cracks or voids. New experimental results based on nik-engineeringTM, relating the experimental technique to changes of the complex refractive index (n + ik), will be presented for different optical materials.