Open AccessOn femtosecond micromachining of HPHT single-crystal diamond with direct laser writing using tight focusing
Author(s) -
O. H. Y. Zalloum,
Matthew Parrish,
Alexander Terekhov,
William Hofmeister
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.18.013122
Subject(s) - materials science , femtosecond , laser , sapphire , optics , diamond , surface micromachining , crystal (programming language) , optoelectronics , composite material , fabrication , medicine , physics , alternative medicine , pathology , computer science , programming language
We investigate the formation of diversiform micro-/nano-structures in High-Pressure High-Temperature (HPHT) synthetic single-crystal diamond by tight-focusing 200 fs regeneratively amplified Ti: Sapphire laser pulses centered at lambda = 800 nm. Ablated samples of synthetic single crystal nanodiamond and their acetate replicas are analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Using pulse energies that are significantly above the threshold for permanent change, it is shown from this work that amplified femtosecond pulses are capable of producing controlled modification of HPHT single-crystal diamond at size scales below the diffraction limit and provided negligible collateral heating and shock-wave damage. This is attributed to the low thermal losses and negligible hydrodynamic expansion of the ablated material during the femtosecond laser pulse. It is shown that low pulse energy is a key factor for the accurate and precise machining of micropattems.