Transparent material processing with an ultrashort pulse laser
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of scribing a transparent material, comprising:
- using a single pass of a focused beam of ultrashort laser pulses to create a surface groove in said material and at least one modified region within the bulk of said material during motion of said transparent material relative to said focused laser beam,wherein an intensity of said focused beam produces non-linear absorption within a material region, and said ultrashort pulses are generated at a repetition rate sufficiently high such that spatial overlap between said pulses, and interaction between said laser pulses and a modified region, creates at least one additional region of material modification within the material,wherein said surface groove and said at least one modified region are each formed by interaction of said focused beam with said material, said surface groove in said material and said at least one modified region within the bulk being formed along a beam propagation direction, andwherein said surface groove and said at least one modified region are discontinuous and separated in depth.
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Abstract
A method for scribing transparent materials uses ultrashort laser pulses to create multiple scribe features with a single pass of the laser beam across the material, with at least one of the scribe features being formed below the surface of the material. This enables clean breaking of transparent materials at a higher speed than conventional techniques.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. A method of scribing a transparent material, comprising:
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using a single pass of a focused beam of ultrashort laser pulses to create a surface groove in said material and at least one modified region within the bulk of said material during motion of said transparent material relative to said focused laser beam, wherein an intensity of said focused beam produces non-linear absorption within a material region, and said ultrashort pulses are generated at a repetition rate sufficiently high such that spatial overlap between said pulses, and interaction between said laser pulses and a modified region, creates at least one additional region of material modification within the material, wherein said surface groove and said at least one modified region are each formed by interaction of said focused beam with said material, said surface groove in said material and said at least one modified region within the bulk being formed along a beam propagation direction, and wherein said surface groove and said at least one modified region are discontinuous and separated in depth. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A method for scribing a transparent material, comprising:
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using a single pass of a focused beam of ultrashort laser pulses to create a plurality of modified regions within the bulk of said material during motion of said transparent material relative to the focused laser beam, wherein said method comprises focusing said beam within the bulk of said material such that an intensity of said focused beam produces non-linear absorption within said material and causes first material modification at a first location within said material in the beam propagation direction and second material modification at a second location at a greater distance along said beam propagation direction within said material, wherein each of said first and second material modifications are formed along said beam propagation direction as discontinuous regions separated in depth, wherein said beam of ultrashort pulses is generated at a repetition rate sufficiently high such that said first and second material modifications are formed with spatially overlapping pulses during said single pass. - View Dependent Claims (5)
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6. A transparent material scribed at two or more locations in a depth direction thereof with a single pass of a focused beam of ultrashort laser pulses,
wherein said scribed locations comprise a surface groove scribed in said material and at least one scribe feature formed in the bulk of said material, wherein said surface groove and said at least one scribe feature are formed along said beam propagation direction, said surface groove and said at least one scribe feature being discontinuous and separated in depth, and wherein a location of said surface groove and said at least one scribe feature are separated by a determined distance.
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7. A method of scribing a transparent material, comprising:
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irradiating said material with a beam of focused and spatially overlapping ultrashort laser pulses, in a single pass and during motion of said transparent material relative to said focused laser beam, to modify said material at two or more locations and produce scribe features in a depthwise direction thereof, wherein an intensity of said focused beam produces non-linear absorption within a material region, wherein at least a portion of said irradiating is carried out with a diffractive optical element that generates multiple regions of high optical intensity at different depthwise locations along a propagation axis of said focused laser beam, said diffractive optical element receiving an input beam and generating multiple laser modified discontinuous regions separated in depth. - View Dependent Claims (8)
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9. A method of scribing a transparent material, comprising:
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generating a zero-th order Bessel beam of laser light, and irradiating said material in a single pass with said beam during motion of said transparent material relative to the beam to modify said material at two or more locations in a depthwise direction thereof using multiple regions of high optical intensity generated by said beam at different depthwise locations within said material, wherein an intensity of said beam produces non-linear absorption within said material. - View Dependent Claims (10)
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11. A system for scribing a transparent material, comprising:
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an ultrashort laser source to generate a beam of ultrashort laser pulses, wherein said beam of ultrashort pulses comprises a pulse duration in the range from 50 fs to 500 ps; an optical system to focus and deliver said beam of ultrashort laser pulses to said material with optical intensity sufficiently high so as to produce non-linear absorption within said material, and to modify said material at two or more locations in a depthwise direction thereof so as to produce scribe features; and a motion system to produce motion of said transparent material relative to said focused laser beam, said motion system operatively connected to said ultrashort laser source and said optical system, wherein said ultrashort laser source and said motion system are configured in such a way that said ultrashort pulses are generated at a repetition rate sufficiently high such that said-material modifications and scribe features are simultaneously formed with spatially overlapping pulses during said motion and in a single pass of said laser beam with respect to said material. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification