Recent progress in femtosecond pulsed laser processing research

Abstract

As an advanced processing technique, femtosecond laser achieves precision machining of complex three-dimensional parts from micro/nano- to macro-field on any material due to its special properties such as "cold processing", nonlinear multiphoton effect, and far beyond the optical diffraction limit, etc. Huge market prospect is shown for femtosecond laser application in fields of micro/nano- precision machinery, micro/nano-electronics, micro/nano-photonics, surface engineering and biomedicine, etc. Summary on research progress is made including femtosecond laser ablation, cutting, drilling, functional surface fabrication, in-volume and polymeric processing by femtosecond laser in recently three years. A discussion is made about the opportunities and challenges in femtosecond laser processing from the aspects of laser material interaction mechanism, processing precision, processing method, and processing object, etc.