Abstract
An ultrashort pulse laser, capable of varying the pulse duration from 0.2 ps up to 10 ps, is used to study the ablation characteristics of stainless steel and cemented tungsten carbide. In addition to the influence of pulse duration, the number of pulses and the wavelength are examined for their influence on the ablation process. By determining the ablation diameter of generated cavities, the ablation threshold of the materials is calculated as a function of the number of pulses, the pulse duration, and the wavelength. The experimentally determined ablation thresholds tend to agree with calculated values. Due to the incubation effect, the ablation threshold decreases with increasing the number of pulses. In this context, the incubation factor (0.81@1030 nm and 0.80@515 nm for stainless steel, 0.90@1030 nm and 0.77@515 nm for cemented tungsten carbide) for the investigated materials is determined. On the basis of the measured ablated volume, the effective penetration depth (a reduction in a range from about 12 nm and 15 nm to 6 nm for stainless steel and in a range from 22 nm and 32 nm to 11 nm and 13 nm for cemented tungsten carbide by increasing the pulse duration from 0.2 ps to 10 ps) of the energy is calculated and it is proven that in the femtosecond regime the penetration depth increases compared with the picosecond regime. In consequence, the efficiency of the ablation process is increased by using shorter laser pulses.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Neuenschwander B, Jaeggi B, Schmid M, Rouffiange V, Martin PE (2012) Optimization of the volume ablation rate for metals at different laser pulse-durations from ps to fs. In: Laser Applications in Microelectronic and Optoelectronic Manufacturing (LAMOM) XVII (International Society for Optics and Photonics), vol 8243, p 824307
Schille J, Loeschner U, Ebert R, Scully P, Goddard N, Exner H (2010) Laser micro processing using a high repetition rate femtosecond laser. In: 29th International Congress on Application of Laser & Electro-Optics, ICALEO, California, USA, paper, vol 189
Raciukaitis G, Brikas M, Gecys P, Gedvilas M (2008) Accumulation effects in laser ablation of metals with high-repetition-rate lasers. In: High-Power Laser Ablation VII (International Society for Optics and Photonics), vol 7005, p 70052L
Chichkov B N, Momma C, Nolte S, Von Alvensleben F, Tünnermann A (1996) Femtosecond, picosecond and nanosecond laser ablation of solids. Appl Phys A 63(2):109
Shaheen M, Gagnon J, Fryer B (2013) Laser ablation of iron: a comparison between femtosecond and picosecond laser pulses. J Appl Phys 114(8):083110
Qi Y, Qi H, Chen A, Hu Z (2014) Improvement of aluminum drilling efficiency and precision by shaped femtosecond laser. Applied Surface Science 317:252
Schille J (2013) Investigation of micromachining using a high repetition rate femtosecond fibre laser. Ph.D. thesis, The University of Manchester (United Kingdom)
Jee Y, Becker M F, Walser R M (1988) Laser-induced damage on single-crystal metal surfaces. JOSA B 5(3):648
Chen F, Du G, Yang Q, Si J, Hou H (2011) Ultrafast heating characteristics in multi-layer metal film assembly under femtosecond laser pulses irradiation. Two Phase Flow, Phase Change and Numerical Modeling, pp 239
Rethfeld B, Ivanov DS, Garcia ME, Anisimov SI (2017) Modelling ultrafast laser ablation. J Phys D: Appl Phys 50(19):193001
Huang J, Zhang Y, Chen J (2010) Ultrafast phase change during femtosecond laser interaction with gold films: effect of film thickness. Numerical Heat Transfer, Part A:, Applications 57(12):893
Wellershoff S S, Hohlfeld J, Güdde J, Matthias E (1999) The role of electron–phonon coupling in femtosecond laser damage of metals. Appl Phys A 69(1):S99
Le Harzic R, Breitling D, Weikert M, Sommer S, Föhl C, Valette S, Donnet C, Audouard E, Dausinger F (2005) Pulse width and energy influence on laser micromachining of metals in a range of 100 fs to 5 ps. Appl Surf Sci 249(1-4):322
Miyasaka Y, Hashida M, Nishii T, Inoue S, Sakabe S (2015) Derivation of effective penetration depth of femtosecond laser pulses in metal from ablation rate dependence on laser fluence, incidence angle, and polarization. Appld Phys Lett 106(1):013101
Furmanski J, Rubenchik A, Shirk M, Stuart B (2007) Deterministic processing of alumina with ultrashort laser pulses. J Appld Phys 102(7):073112
Liu J (1982) Simple technique for measurements of pulsed Gaussian-beam spot sizes. Optics Letters 7(5):196
Byskov-Nielsen J, Savolainen J M, Christensen M S, Balling P (2010) Ultra-short pulse laser ablation of metals: threshold fluence, incubation coefficient and ablation rates. Appl Phys A 101(1):97
Stuart B C, Feit M D, Herman S, Rubenchik A M, Shore B W, Perry M D (1996) Optical ablation by high-power short-pulse lasers. JOSA B 13(2):459
Mourou G A, Du D, Dutta S K, Elner V, Kurtz R, Lichter P R, Liu X, Pronko P P, Squier JA (1997) Method for controlling configuration of laser induced breakdown and ablation (1997). US Patent 5,656,186
Kim C S (1975) Thermophysical properties of stainless steels. Tech. rep., Argonne National Lab., Ill.(USA)
Upadhyaya G S (2001) Materials science of cemented carbides: an overview. Materials & Design 22(6):483
Liu K, Li X (2001) Ductile cutting of tungsten carbide. J Mater Process Technol 113(1-3):348
Sipkens TA, Hadwin PJ, Grauer SJ, Daun KJ (2018) Predicting the heat of vaporization of iron at high temperatures using time-resolved laser-induced incandescence and Bayesian model selection. J Appl Phys 123(9):095103
Neuenschwander B, Jaeggi B, Schmid M, Hennig G (2014) Surface structuring with ultra-short laser pulses: basics, limitations and needs for high throughput. Phys Procedia 56:1047
Smirnov NA, Kudryashov SI, Danilov PA, Rudenko AA, Gakovic B, Milovanović D, Ionin AA, Nastulyavichus AA, Umanskaya S (2019) Microprocessing of a steel surface by single pulses of variable width. Laser Physics Letters 16(5):056002
Schille J, Schneider L, Loeschner U, Ebert R, Scully P, Goddard N, Steiger B, Exner H (2011) Micro processing of metals using a high repetition rate femtosecond laser: from laser process parameter study to machining examples. In: International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics (Laser Institute of America), pp 773–782
Raciukaitis G, Brikas M, Gecys P, Voisiat B, Gedvilas M, et al. (2009) Use of high repetition rate and high power lasers in microfabrication: how to keep the efficiency high? JLMN Journal of Laser Micro/Nanoengineering 4(3):186
Bauer F, Michalowski A, Kiedrowski T, Nolte S (2015) Heat accumulation in ultra-short pulsed scanning laser ablation of metals. Optics express 23(2):1035
Mannion P, Magee J, Coyne E, O’Connor G, Glynn T (2004) The effect of damage accumulation behaviour on ablation thresholds and damage morphology in ultrafast laser micro-machining of common metals in air. Applied surface science 233(1-4):275
Metzner D, Lickschat P, Weißmantel S (2019) Laser micromachining of silicon and cemented tungsten carbide using picosecond laser pulses in burst mode: ablation mechanisms and heat accumulation. Applied Physics A 125(7):462
Pfeiffer M, Engel A, Weißmantel S, Scholze S, Reisse G (2011) Microstructuring of steel and hard metal using femtosecond laser pulses. Physics Procedia 12:60
Lickschat P, Schille J, Mueller M, Weissmantel S, Reisse G (2012) Comparative study on microstructuring of steel using pico-and femtosecond laser pulses. In: International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics (Laser Institute of America), vol 2012, pp 1261–1268
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the European Social Fund for Germany (ESF) for funding the project No. 100360636 and the project No. 100339506.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lickschat, P., Metzner, D. & Weißmantel, S. Fundamental investigations of ultrashort pulsed laser ablation on stainless steel and cemented tungsten carbide. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 109, 1167–1175 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-05502-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-05502-8