MICROMACHINING OF QUARTZ WITH ULTRASHORT LASER-PULSES

Well-defined and highly reproducible channels of a few micrometres dia meter and lengths of over 1 mm have been produced in quartz with laser pulses of 790 nm wavelength (Ti:sapphire) and pulse lengths of 100-20 0 fs. The channel depth can be controlled by the laser fluence and num ber of laser shots. Comparisons were made with laser pulse lengths of 1.3 ps, 2.8 ps, 30 ps, and 5 ns. The micromachining produced by the fs laser pulses was found to be much more controllable and reproducible than the longer pulses and produced much less damage in the material.