Femtosecond laser drilling of high-aspect ratio microchannels in glass

A femtosecond laser is used to fabricate microchannels with high aspect ratios by laser direct ablation. Drilling both in air and in water is investigated. It is found that at low pulse energy, drilling in water can generate channels with high aspect ratios. However, at high pulse energy, water-assisted drilling stops working and only very shallow holes can be obtained. The reason for this is presented. On the contrary, the aspect ratio of holes drilled in air increases significantly at high pulse energy. The effects of writing speed and repeated fabrication are also investigated, and an optimum writing speed is determined for fixed laser parameters.

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