Micro-machining using femtosecond lasers

Femtosecond laser systems have been proved to be effective tools for high precision micro-machining. Almost all solid materials can be processed with high precision. The dependence on material properties like thermal conductivity, transparency, heat- or shock sensitivity is strongly reduced and no significant influence on the remaining bulk material is observed after ablation using femtosecond laser pulses. In contrast to conventional laser processing, where the achievable precision is reduced due to a formed liquid phase causing burr formation, the achievable precision using femtosecond pulses is only limited by the diffraction of the used optics. Potential applications of this technique, including the structuring of biodegradable polymers for cardiovascular implants, so-called stents, as well as high precision machining of transparent materials are presented.