Temperature effects on the geometry during the formation of micro-holes fabricated by femtosecond laser in PMMA

In this study, the temperature effects on hole geometry of the PMMA during micro-holes drilling by ferntosecond laser has been studied under various pulse energy and number of pulse. The laser-induced hole's diameter is considerably increased by 73% as the temperature rises from 20 degrees C to 90 degrees C. Remarkable enhancement in the removal volume of micro-hole is also observed under high temperature. The possible mechanism for such changes is discussed in detail on account of optical absorption enhancement and higher density of surface plasma. The atomic percentage of oxygen obviously increases with the increase of temperature, which is beneficial to femtosecond laser fabrication of PMMA micro-hole. The spatter area of micro-hole has been found to tremendously extend with the increase of temperature, which is due to recoil pressure effect. These results demonstrate that temperature plays a crucial role to tailor micro-hole fabrication by femtosecond laser. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.