Process Control in Laser Material Processing for the Micro and Nanometer Scale Domains

Abstract

An array of laser material processing techniques is presented for fabricating structures in the micro and nanometer scale length domains. For the past 20 years, processes have been demonstrated where the use of the inherent properties of lasers has led to increased fidelity in the processing of materials. These demonstrated processes often use inventive approaches that rely on derivative aspects of established primary principles that govern laser/material interaction phenomena. The intent of this overview is to explore the next generation of processes and techniques that could be applied in industry because of the need for better precision, higher resolution, smaller feature size, true 3D fabrication, and higher piece-part fabrication throughput.