Plasma Absorption of Femtosecond Laser Pulses in Dielectrics

Dielectric (high bandgap) materials represent an important and diverse class of materials in micro and nanotechnology, including MEMS devices, biomedical and bioengineering systems, multilayer thin film coatings, fiber optics, etc. Micromachining dielectrics using ultrafast lasers is an exciting and promising new research area with many significant advantages, including precision material removal, negligible heating of the workpiece, micron and sub-micron-size feature fabrication, and high aspect ratio features. During ultrafast laser processing of dielectrics, the intense laser pulse ionizes the irradiated material and produces an optical breakdown region, or plasma, that is characterized by a high density of free electrons. These high-density electrons can efficiently absorb a large fraction of the laser irradiance energy, part of which will then be coupled into the bulk material, resulting in material removal through direct vaporization. The energy deposited into the material depends on the time and space-dependent breakdown region, the plasma rise time, and the plasma absorption coefficient