Internal modification for cutting transparent glass using femtosecond Bessel beams

Abstract

Taking advantage of the nonlinear laser-material interaction, femtosecond lasers can process transparent materials internally on micro- or nanoscales, whose applications include fabrication of micro-optical waveguides and fluidics, as well as stealth dicing of glass, ceramics, and semiconductor materials. A femtosecond Bessel beam has a long invariant transverse intensity profile up to several millimeters with a width of a few microns. Such characteristics allow the materials processing to be completed without moving the beam focusing points as in the case of the Gaussian beam. An experimental femtosecond Bessel beam microprocessing system is built up to investigate the glass internal modification characteristics, such as the width variation and aspect ratios of modification areas. The residual stresses in the irradiated area of glass after modification are also studied using micro Raman spectrum. Finally, an application to thin glass panel cutting is demonstrated by the process of internal modification and breaking. The glass panel is well cut with the chipping on the breaking edge <1 μm. © 2014 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).