Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Fabrication of depth-controlled high-quality holes and lines on a metal surface by nanosecond laser pulses at 1064 nm

  • ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • Published:
The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

For laser micromachining of metal substrates, it is widely believed that an expensive femtosecond laser is necessary to fabricate high-quality holes with very little ablation rims, while the use of inexpensive nanosecond laser suffers from the formation of pronounced ablation rims. We demonstrate that the metal substrate with a metal film is a nice workpiece to realize high-quality nanosecond laser micromachining, and the kinds of metals for the film and substrate may be the same or different. This is because the ablation threshold of a metal film on a metal substrate is much lower than that of the bare metal substrate. Accordingly, under the certain laser fluence range, we can selectively ablate only the metal film while the metal substrate remains intact. The hole fabricated this way is of high quality since it exhibits a nearly flat bottom with well-defined depth and very little rims. Fabrication of high-quality lines is much more challenging, because the metal substrate, without or with a metal film, suffers from the accumulating heat during the repetitive irradiation of laser pulses with a short time interval and sufficient spatial overlap to form a line. In spite of such inherent difficulty, we demonstrate that the selective removal of a metal film from the metal substrate still works reasonably well to fabricate high-quality lines with little structures. The use of metal substrate with a metal film is a simple and effective strategy to significantly improve the performance of cost-effective nanosecond laser micromachining.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Bauerle D (2011) Laser processing and chemistry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

    Book  Google Scholar 

  2. Semerok A, Chaléard C, Detalle V, Lacour JL, Mauchien P, Meynadier P, Nouvellon C, Sallé B, Palianov P, Perdrix M, Petite G (1999) Experimental investigations of laser ablation efficiency of pure metals with femto, pico and nanosecond pulses. Appl Surf Sci 138–139:311–314. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-4332(98)00411-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Chichkov BN, Momma C, Nolte S, Von Alvensleben F, Tünnermann A (1996) Femtosecond, picosecond and nanosecond laser ablation of solids. Appl Phys A Mater Sci Process 115:109–115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Williams E, Brousseau E (2016) Nanosecond laser processing of Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 with single pulses. J Mater Process Technol 232:34–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Chu C, Zhang Q, Zhuo H, Zhang Z, Zhu Y, Fu Y (2021) Investigation on the ablation behavior of cemented tungsten carbide by a nanosecond UV laser. J Manuf Process 71:461–471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2021.09.038

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Weber R, Graf T, Berger P, Onuseit V, Wiedenmann M, Freitag C, Feuer A (2014) Heat accumulation during pulsed laser materials processing. Opt Express 22:11312. https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.22.011312

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Bauer F, Michalowski A, Kiedrowski T, Nolte S (2015) Heat accumulation in ultra-short pulsed scanning laser ablation of metals. Opt Express 23:1035. https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.23.001035

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Sedao X, Lenci M, Rudenko A, Faure N, Pascale-Hamri A, Colombier JP, Mauclair C (2019) Influence of pulse repetition rate on morphology and material removal rate of ultrafast laser ablated metallic surfaces. Opt Lasers Eng 116:68–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optlaseng.2018.12.009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Zhao W, Shen X, Liu H, Wang L, Jiang H (2020) Effect of high repetition rate on dimension and morphology of micro-hole drilled in metals by picosecond ultra-short pulse laser. Opt Lasers Eng 124:105811. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optlaseng.2019.105811

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Mensink K, Penilla EH, Martínez-Torres P, Cuando-Espitia N, Mathaudhu S, Aguilar G (2019) High repetition rate femtosecond laser heat accumulation and ablation thresholds in cobalt-binder and binderless tungsten carbides. J Mater Process Technol 266:388–396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2018.09.030

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Yahng JS, Jeoung SC (2011) Silicon substrate temperature effects on surface roughness induced by ultrafast laser processing. Opt Lasers Eng 49:1040–1044. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optlaseng.2011.04.008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Jiao LS, Moon SK, Ng EYK, Zheng HY, Son HS (2014) Influence of substrate heating on hole geometry and spatter area in femtosecond laser drilling of silicon. Appl Phys Lett 104:1–4. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4875928

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Lenzner M, Krüger J, Kautek W, Krausz F (1999) Incubation of laser ablation in fused silica with 5-fs pulses. Appl Phys A Mater Sci Process 69:465–466. https://doi.org/10.1007/s003390051034

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Di Niso F, Gaudiuso C, Sibillano T, Mezzapesa FP, Ancona A, Lugarà PM (2014) Role of heat accumulation on the incubation effect in multi-shot laser ablation of stainless steel at high repetition rates. Opt Express 22:12200. https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.22.012200

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Lasemi N, Pacher U, Zhigilei LV, Bomatí-Miguel O, Lahoz R, Kautek W (2018) Pulsed laser ablation and incubation of nickel, iron and tungsten in liquids and air. Appl Surf Sci 433:772–779. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2017.10.082

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Liu H, Lin W, Lin Z, Ji L, Hong M (2019) Self-organized periodic microholes array formation on aluminum surface via femtosecond laser ablation induced incubation effect. Adv Funct Mater 29:1903576. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201903576

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Lickschat P, Demba A, Weissmantel S (2017) Ablation of steel using picosecond laser pulses in burst mode. Appl Phys A Mater Sci Process 123:1–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-016-0743-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Cheng CW, Chen JK (2020) Ultrafast laser ablation of copper by GHz bursts. Appl Phys A Mater Sci Process 126:1–7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-020-03853-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Bonamis G, Audouard E, Hönninger C, Lopez J, Mishchik K, Mottay E, Manek-Hönninger I (2020) Systematic study of laser ablation with GHz bursts of femtosecond pulses. Opt Express 28:27702. https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.400624

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Gaudiuso C, Terekhin PN, Volpe A, Nolte S, Rethfeld B, Ancona A (2021) Laser ablation of silicon with THz bursts of femtosecond pulses. Sci Rep 11:13321. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92645-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Zhao X, Cao Y, Nian Q, Cheng G, Shin YC (2014) Control of ablation depth and surface structure in P3 scribing of thin-film solar cells by a picosecond laser. J Micro Nano-Manufacturing 2:031007. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4027733

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Cheng CW, Tsai XZ, Chen JS (2016) Micromachining of stainless steel with controllable ablation depth using femtosecond laser pulses. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 85:1947–1954. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-016-8821-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Kim HY, Yoon JW, Choi WS, Kim KR, Cho SH (2016) Ablation depth control with 40 nm resolution on ITO thin films using a square, flat top beam shaped femtosecond NIR laser. Opt Lasers Eng 84:44–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optlaseng.2016.03.025

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Huang LJ, Zhang GM, Li H, Li BJ, Wang YY, Ren NF (2020) Selective laser ablation and patterning on Ag thin films with width and depth control. J Mater Sci Mater Electron 31:4943–4955. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-020-03061-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Zhao W, Wang W, Li BQ, Jiang G, Mei X (2016) Wavelength effect on hole shapes and morphology evolution during ablation by picosecond laser pulses. Opt Laser Technol 84:79–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optlastec.2016.05.007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Rebegea SA, Thomas K, Chawla V, Michler J, Kong MC (2016) Laser ablation of a Cu–Al–Ni combinatorial thin film library: analysis of crater morphology and geometry. Appl Phys A Mater Sci Process 122:1074. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-016-0608-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Kim HY, Choi WS, Ji SY, Shin YG, Jeon JW, Ahn S, Cho SH (2018) Morphologies of femtosecond laser ablation of ITO thin films using gaussian or quasi-flat top beams for OLED repair. Appl Phys A Mater Sci Process 124:123. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-018-1553-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Li B, Li H, Huang L, Wang Y, Li S, Ren N (2019) Improving edge quality and optical transmittance of Ag films on glass substrates by selective nanosecond pulsed laser ablation using various scanning methods. J Mater Sci Mater Electron 30:13729–13739. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-019-01755-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Gaudiuso C, Giannuzzi G, Volpe A, Lugarà PM, Choquet I, Ancona A (2018) Incubation during laser ablation with bursts of femtosecond pulses with picosecond delays. Opt Express 26:3801. https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.26.003801

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Nivas JJJ, Allahyari E, Vecchione A, Hao Q, Amoruso S, Wang X (2020) Laser ablation and structuring of CdZnTe with femtosecond laser pulses. J Mater Sci Technol 48:180–185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmst.2020.01.059

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Farid N, Chan H, Milne D, Brunton A, O’Connor GM (2018) Stress assisted selective ablation of ITO thin film by picosecond laser. Appl Surf Sci 427:499–504. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2017.08.232

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Charee W, Tangwarodomnukun V (2020) Laser ablation of silicon in water at different temperatures. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 107:2333–2344. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-05182-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Lasemi N, Rupprechter G, Liedl G, Eder D (2021) Near-infrared femtosecond laser ablation of au-coated ni: effect of organic fluids and water on crater morphology, ablation efficiency and hydrodynamic properties of niau nanoparticles. Materials (Basel) 14:5544. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14195544

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Guo Y, Qiu P, Xu S, Cheng GJ (2022) Laser-induced microjet-assisted ablation for high-quality microfabrication. Int J Extrem Manuf 4:035101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Fabbro R, Fournier J, Ballard P, Devaux D, Virmont J (1990) Physical study of laser-produced plasma in confined geometry. J Appl Phys 68:775–784. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.346783

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan

    Keisuke Sota, Kota Ando & Takashi Nakajima

Authors
  1. Keisuke Sota
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kota Ando
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Takashi Nakajima
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

K. S.: investigation, data curation, writing—original draft. K. A.: data curation, formal analysis. T. N.: conceptualization, methodology, writing—original draft, review and editing, supervision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Takashi Nakajima.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

Not applicable.

Consent to participate

We confirm that the manuscript has been read and approved by all named authors.

Consent for publication

This manuscript is approved by all authors for publication.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sota, K., Ando, K. & Nakajima, T. Fabrication of depth-controlled high-quality holes and lines on a metal surface by nanosecond laser pulses at 1064 nm. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 129, 1259–1268 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-12345-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-12345-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation