Ultrafast laser material processing using dynamic temporal pulse shaping

Phase manipulated ultrafast laser pulses and temporally tailored pulse trains with THz repetition rates are promising new tools for quality micromachining of brittle dielectric materials, allowing to adapt the energy delivery rate to the material properties for optimal processing quality. The sequential energy delivery with judiciously chosen pulse trains may induce softening of the material during the initial steps of excitation and change the energy coupling for the subsequent steps. We show that this can result in lower stress, cleaner structures, and allow for a material-dependent optimization process.