Generation of ultrafast Bessel micro-beams and applications to laser surface nanoprocessing

International audienceThe novel propagation characteristics of Bessel beams have been widely applied to optical manipulation and harmonic generation, and have provided new perspectives on fundamentals of ultrashort laser pulse propagation in nonlinear media. Fully exploiting their many unique properties, however, requires the development of techniques for the generation of high quality Bessel beams with flexible adjustment of the beam parameters. Moreover, long working distances are needed to produce Bessel beams inside bulk samples. In this paper, we report on the development of a novel spatial light modulator based setup that combines the properties of parameter flexibility, long working distance, high throughput and operation on micron-scale. We report both on the general characterization of the beam properties as well as a specific application in surface nanoprocessing