Femtosecond Laser Ablation of Polyethylene

A 790 nm, 130 fs Ti:sapphire laser was used for the ablation of polyethylene. Compared to a 193 nm, 23 ns ArF laser, the ablated surface was precisely limited by the area exposed and a trace of the molten material could not be seen in the area. Moreover, the fs laser did not change the chemical composition of the ablated surface because of its low photon energy of 1.6 eV. The most suitable fluence range of the fs laser for ablating polyethylene was found to be from 60 to 100 mJ/cm2.