3D-microstructuring of sapphire using high power fs-laser radiation and selective etching Available to Purchase

We demonstrate a technique called “In-volume Selective Laser Etching” (ISLE) for fs laser micro structuring of sapphire and fused silica with subsequent wet etching in HF acid for the formation of micro channels, micro mechanical devices and hollow volumes. In the process the sample is irradiated and by that modified in the focus volume. Afterwards the sample is wet chemically etched using 48% hydrofluoric acid (HF) or potassium hydroxide (KOH) to remove the modified material. Due to the non-linear absorption process in transparent materials a complete variability in three dimensions is given. This allows the modification also in the sample volume for the fabrication of, e.g micro channels and hollow volumes, which are required for micro fluidic applications. More over ISLE can be used as a kind of cutting process to fabricate 3D micro mechanical components with high precision. In this paper the results achieved by ISLE carried out with a FCPA laser system from IMRA and a fs-Innoslab amplifier developed at the ILT are presented.