Metal surface structuring with spatiotemporally focused femtosecond laser pulses

Abstract

Femtosecond laser micromachining provides high precision and less thermal\ndiffusion in surface structuring as a result of the ultrashort temporal\nduration and ultrahigh peak intensity of the femtosecond laser pulses. To\nincrease the throughput of surface patterning, the focal spot size can be\nexpanded with loose focusing, which, however, could lead to nonlinear\nself-focusing of the pulses when the pulses propagate in air. We solve the\nproblem by use of spatiotemporally focused femtosecond laser pulses for\nablation of metal surfaces, which gives rise to improved surface quality as\ncompared with that obtained with the conventional focusing scheme.\n