Development of an ultrafast laser ultra-precision machining platform

Ultra-precision manufacturing is commonplace in today’s society. It is used in a huge number of applications from electronics, medical devices to energy devices. Most devices manufactured using ultra-precision methods are made in high quantities where the volume of the components is required to outweigh the cost of the production equipment. However, there are few technologies targeting the manufacture of prototypes or small batches and those that are costly in terms of time or resources. Thus, there is a demand for a high speed, flexible manufacturing platform that is capable of ultra-precise manufacture. Currently, manufacturing techniques using ultrafast lasers are limited with regards to accuracy and repeatability. This body of work investigates how to develop an ultra-precision ultrafast laser manufacturing platform. From literature it was found that there are a significant number of avenues that could be investigated to improve the precision of an ultrafast laser machining process. This included the integration of metrology to perform closed-loop processing, studies of laser stability, new machining strategies and the effect of processing on plume formation. A significant proportion of the research presented was focused on the development of the ultra-precision platform. This work was carried out to provide a basis for this research but also for those that will use the platform in the future. One of the key outputs from this development was a graphical user interface that integrated with the range of devices on the platform such as the laser, 5-axis stage and beam diagnostic tools. This interface provides methods for automatic tilt correction, autofocus for the laser, angular ablation machining methods and other diagnostic tools. The interface is setup to capture the required data to provide traceability and diagnostics on the laser machining process. This aided the research carried out into improving the accuracy and repeatability of the laser-based process. First, an investigation into the characteristics of the laser installed on the ultra-precision platform was undertaken to determine the long-term stability of the laser with regards to the pointing stability, power stability and beam diameter stability. These characteristics are significant because they all affect the fluence at the focal spot which is responsible for ablating material. Variance in any of those parameters can have an effect and therefore influence the accuracy and repeatability of the process. The effect of duty cycle on power repeatability and the implications of this on machining was examined. Finally, a simulation was created to demonstrate the effect of laser stability on quality of machining. The ability to machine on angled planes enabled an investigation of the effect of angle on plume formation and the ablation threshold of the material. The ablation threshold for silicon was found at angles between normal and 45 degrees. It was found that the threshold could not be correlated with change of incident angle on the area of the focal spot. A range of different powers and angles were captured using the holographic camera and the effect on plume development was assessed. Overall, a range of tasks was completed which enabled several developments of the ultra-precision platform. These included in-process monitoring, the establishment of a novel machining strategy, and the capture of the effect of angular ablation on plume formation using a holographic camera. The platform is now placed to continue further development and integrate with other metrology technologies to provide closed-loop machining capabilities which will lead into a laser-based process which will be used for MEMS and similar device manufacture.EPSR

Precision laser micromachining of hollow core negative curvature fibres

The principal aim of this work was to develop a novel micromachining strategy for a new class of hollow core silica optical fibre, the Negative Curvature Fibre (NCF). Processing techniques were investigated to increase the physical access to the hollow core (along the length of the fibre) in order to enhance the interaction of chemical species with the light and hence enable practical sensing devices. Because of the unique internal structure of these NCFs, consisting of a fine (sub-micron) silica webbing, a highly precise and controllable machining process was required. Due to the well-known advantages of femtosecond laser machining such as the ability for inscription in any material, small volume removal and the non-thermal nature of the process, resulting in machined structures with an almost negligible heat-affected zone, a new femtosecond laser micromachining process was developed. A methodology was successfully demonstrated which gives the capability to precisely machine away the solid outer cladding fibre and then controllably remove the silica webbing and expose the hollow core of the fibre. This single step process provides a more direct way of machining a fibre (compared to previously reported hybrid techniques such as laser machining plus chemical etching). Parameter optimisation allowed control of the removal depth, minimisation of re-deposited material and avoidance of damage to the remaining silica web which is very important for NCF due to its guidance mechanism. An NCF, which was machined through to the hollow core, exhibited no significant disruption to the guidance preserving the confinement of light to the hollow core. Hence the laser micromachining strategy presented in this work paves the way to develop new optical sensing devices exploiting the unique properties of these novel fibre geometries

Pulsed laser ablation of silicon: the influence of beam parameters on ablated crater morphology

Laser micromachining is one of the principal fields where the laser capability to change the material morphology is frequently applied and silicon is still the element most used in the semiconductor and photovoltaic industries despite the recent studies on new materials. Although various models reported in the literature describe the laser material interaction, the relation between the ablated crater morphology and the laser beam parameters remains unclear or does not give methods and equations that can be applied on the engineering environment. The aim of this thesis is to reduce the knowledge gap of the understanding of three laser parameters (pulse duration, energy beam shape, and polarisation) influence on the ablated crater morphology by providing functions and relations that can be applied in the engineering environment. First, a systematic study on laser pulse duration based on two different functions (i.e. thermal-based and non-thermal based) is carried out, then the impact of the thermal effect on crater morphology of two non-standard energy beam distributions (i.e. round flat-top and square-top) is evaluated, and finally the laser polarisation effects in the non-linear laser ablation regime are explored, providing the engineering environment of new functions and relations between laser beam parameters and crater morphology

Focusing and delivery of laser radiation for nano- and microfabrication

The recent advances in nanotechnology and nanofabrication motivate the drive to achieve a tighter focusing of light; this requires a high numerical aperture (NA) optical system. The need for high optical resolution has led scientists to discover the use of optical microlens for improving the performance of high numerical aperture (NA) optical systems. By focusing the laser beam through a microlens, the width of the beam can be reduced according to the needs of the application. In this work, the laser beam was focused by a microspherical lens (NA=0.7) into 150 nm or by tapered fibre into 4 μm diameter spots. The measurements indicate the strong influence of tightly focused beams. This thesis comprises of three parts; the first results chapter investigates the choice of material by considering the material properties and feasibility of fabrication (chapter 2). It has been shown in previous studies that the glass transition temperature of the polymer is an important factor in determining the laser ablation rate. High glass transition temperatures make it a good material candidate for optical waveguides. Polycarbonate (PC), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), negative photoresist SU-8, and chitosan have been characterised to choose suitable material as a substrate for soft nanolithography (chapter 3). The choice of material due to the glass transition temperature of the material (from literature), material optical properties are investigated experimentally at the range of wavelength from 190 nm to 1000 nm. Laser ablation experiments on PC, PMMA, SU- 8 and chitosan using a 193 nm ArF laser over a fluence range of 10 mJcm−2 –1000 mJcm−2. The ablation threshold at 193nm was found to be 24, 110, 40, and 95 mJ.cm-2 for PC, PMMA, SU-8, and chitosan respectively. The photoresist SU-8 and chitosan were chosen as both materials are biocompatible, and have a high glass transition temperature. Optical properties measured for these materials found that both materials have much higher absorption coefficients (αSU-8 ~ 4.2×105m-1 and αchitosan ~3.3×105m-1) compared with PC and PMMA (αPC =1×105m-1 and αPMMA=2×105m-1 )at 193 nm.The second part of this thesis reports experimental and computational results of an irradiated laser microsphere supported on biocompatible materials; SU-8 photoresist and chitosan (chapter 3). An ArF excimer laser (193 nm wavelength) was used with 11.5 ns pulse width to modify the underlying substrate, producing a single concave dimple. Atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscope measurements have been used to quantify the shape and size of laser inscribed dimple. The dimple has a diameter of 150 ± 10 nm FWHM and a depth of 190 ± 10nm on SU-8 compared to 180 ± 10 nm FWHM and a depth of 350 ± 10nm on chitosan due to the optical properties of the materials. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations were carried out to simulate the propagation of 193 nm laser radiation, focussed by a 1 µm diameter silica sphere. Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations were carried out to calculate laser- induced temperature rise of the both SU-8 and Chitosan layer beneath the microsphere. The SiO2 microsphere acts as a small ball lens tightly focussing the laser radiation. Delivery of the focussed laser radiation locally heats the substrate beneath the microsphere. As a consequence, mass transport takes place, forming a nano dimple.The third part of this thesis presents the use of a CO2 laser (10.6 μm wavelength) for producing microlenses at the end of silica optical fibre (chapter 4). By focused CO2 laser beam, silica optical fiber is irradiated and heated to the softening points (1800 K) of the silica material. Surface tension and the parameters of the fabrication system shape the melted material into a spherical micro-lens or tapered fiber that remains joined to the optical fiber. Different core diameters (125, 400, 600, 1000, and 1500 μm) of multimode fibres have been used for this fabrication. The roughness of the microlens was reduced to less than 20 ± 1 nm roughness by polishing the surface with a CO2 laser at low power (1- 2 W). Throughout this work, different microlenses (ball/parabolic) and tapered fibres were fabricated at the end of silica optical fibre. The minimum spot diameter at FWHM was close to 160 μm and 110 μm for microball and parabolic lenses, respectively. While the tapers had the minimum waist diameters down to 4 μm and maximum taper length of ~ 3.5 mm using silica multi-mode fibre. Finally, the knife-edge technique and He-Ne laser beam (632.8 nm wavelength) were coupled into a fibre to investigate the properties of the microlenses which produced a minimum spot size of 5 ±1 μm at FWHM in the focal region of the tapered fibre lenses of 125, 400 and 600 μm core diameter of the fibre.As a result, Chitosan and SU-8 have been used as substrate materials for recording tightly focussed focal regions, 193nm ArF laser has been used to realise extremely small, 150nm diameter, Photonic Nano Jets (PNJ’s). FDTD optical simulations accurately predict the spatial properties of microsphere PNJ’s emitting at 193. CO2 laser (10.6 μm) radiation has been used to form tapers and spherical lenses on the distal end of optical fibres. Finally, tight focusing using microspheres and lensed optical fibres could be integrated on lab-on- chip platforms for applications such as optical trapping and cell membrane modifications. An important application related to the results of this study is that focusing laser light produces a force that can be used to remove or trap selected cells or large tissue areas from living cell culture down to a resolution of individual single cells and subcellular components similar to organelles or chromosomes, respectively.The nanostructures fabricated in this chapter can be refined to achieve specific dimensions in; diameter, depth, shape, and periodicity so they can be used as antireflective surfaces for solar-cell applications [1].or could be used in drug delivery [2]. While laser microbeams are frequently used for measurement or imaging of biological parameters as well as using the optical tweezer system for trapping or moving of cells, the future medical applications will be focused on micromanipulation or microdissection methods for delivering molecules or nano drugs into a cell [3]. Delivering such nano- drugs into cancer cells requires overcoming the cell membrane by focusing the laser. This phenomenon is named photoporation which is based on the generation of localized transient pores in the cell membrane using the photonic nano jet [4]

Laser Pulses

This book discusses aspects of laser pulses generation, characterization, and practical applications. Some new achievements in theory, experiments, and design are demonstrated. The introductive chapter shortly overviews the physical principles of pulsed lasers operation with pulse durations from seconds to yoctoseconds. A theory of mode-locking, based on the optical noise concept, is discussed. With this approximation, all paradoxes of ultrashort laser pulse formation have been explained. The book includes examples of very delicate laser operation in biomedical areas and extremely high power systems used for material processing and water purification. We hope this book will be useful for engineers and managers, for professors and students, and for those who are interested in laser science and technologies

NASA SBIR abstracts of 1992, phase 1 projects

The objectives of 346 projects placed under contract by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are described. These projects were selected competitively from among proposals submitted to NASA in response to the 1992 SBIR Program Solicitation. The basic document consists of edited, non-proprietary abstracts of the winning proposals submitted by small businesses. The abstracts are presented under the 15 technical topics within which Phase 1 proposals were solicited. Each project was assigned a sequential identifying number from 001 to 346, in order of its appearance in the body of the report. Appendixes to provide additional information about the SBIR program and permit cross-reference of the 1992 Phase 1 projects by company name, location by state, principal investigator, NASA Field Center responsible for management of each project, and NASA contract number are included

Rare-earth elements doped novel photonics sources

This thesis presents the work carried out on the development of novel photonic sources based in rare-earth doped ions. It discusses in detail the properties of rare earth ions and its applications. The three major components of this work, namely, rare-earth doped solid state hosts, rare-earth doped speciality fibres, and rare-earth doped waveguide lasers have been presented in different chapters. The host glasses for the rare-earth doped gain mediums have been prepared by the traditional melt-quenching technique and spectroscopic studies have been carried out on them. Experiments to realise multi-wavelength lasers operating in the visible range have been carried out on the samarium doped phosphate glasses, owing to samarium‟s unique multiple emission peaks at 561 nm, 596 nm, and 643 nm with violet-blue excitation. Due to the relatively low emission cross section value of trivalent samarium ions (3.911 X 10-22 cm2 at 596 nm), it requires a much higher pump power. Due to the lack of high pump power diodes in the violet wavelength range, laser action could not be demonstrated. Further spectroscopic investigations on the samarium doped glasses and crystals revealed that the presence of excited state absorption could be a factor as well which discourages the realisation of laser emission in the sample. Rare-earth doped multicore optical fibres have been designed and fabricated for the realisation of active multiplexer elements and multi-wavelength lasers. Optical fibres with six cores and two cores respectively have been fabricated. Each of the six cores of the fibre were doped with erbium with the aim to develop active multiplexer elements which could incorporate multiplexing and amplification together. The cores showed considerable gains, with the maximum gain of around 30 dB – 40 dB in the wavelength range of 1500 nm – 1600 nm. The cores of the two core fibre were doped with ytterbium and erbium/ytterbium with the aim to demonstrate simultaneous laser action at 1 μm and 1.5 μm. The fibre, upon cladding pumping at 976 nm, demonstrated simultaneous laser emissions at 1061 nm and 1536 nm from the ytterbium and erbium/ytterbium doped cores, respectively. The laser action was observed with Fresnel reflection from the parallel cleaved facets of the fibre. The slope efficiency of the emission for both the cores were ~1%, which is quite low, considering the Fresnel reflection lasing. CW modelocked waveguide laser has been demonstrated in ytterbium doped bismuthate glasses. The waveguides were inscribed by the ultrafast laser inscription technique. The waveguide laser operated at the repetition rate of around 1.94 GHz with the pulse duration of about 1.1 ps at the wavelength of 1029 nm

Optoelectronics – Devices and Applications

Optoelectronics - Devices and Applications is the second part of an edited anthology on the multifaced areas of optoelectronics by a selected group of authors including promising novices to experts in the field. Photonics and optoelectronics are making an impact multiple times as the semiconductor revolution made on the quality of our life. In telecommunication, entertainment devices, computational techniques, clean energy harvesting, medical instrumentation, materials and device characterization and scores of other areas of R&D the science of optics and electronics get coupled by fine technology advances to make incredibly large strides. The technology of light has advanced to a stage where disciplines sans boundaries are finding it indispensable. New design concepts are fast emerging and being tested and applications developed in an unimaginable pace and speed. The wide spectrum of topics related to optoelectronics and photonics presented here is sure to make this collection of essays extremely useful to students and other stake holders in the field such as researchers and device designers