Novel technology for laser precision microfabrication of hard materials

Hybrid laser processing for precision microfabrication of hard materials, in which the interaction of a conventional pulsed laser beam and another medium on the material surface leads to effective ablation, is reviewed. The main role of the medium is to produce strong absorption of the nanosecond laser beam by the materials. Simultaneous irradiation with the ultraviolet (UV) laser beam and the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) laser beam which possesses extremely small laser fluence results in the accurate ablation of hard materials such as fused silica, crystal quartz, sapphire, GaN, and SiC. (VUV-UV multiwavelength excitation process). Metal plasma generated by the laser beam effectively assists high-quality ablation of transparent materials, leading to submicron grating fabrication and high-speed hole drilling of glass materials (laser-induced plasma-assisted ablation (LIPAA)). The detailed discussion presented here includes the ablation mechanism of hybrid laser processing and a comparison of advantages and disadvantages of F2 laser ablation.