Helical structures with novel optical and mechanical properties have been demonstrated and are commonly used in different fields such as metamaterials, microfluidics and cell scaffold. None of conventional fabrication methods has the throughput or flexibility required for patterning large surface area with tunable pitch. In this paper, we report a novel method for high-throughput volumetric fabricating helical structures with tunable shape based on multiphoton polymerization (MPP) using single-exposure, self-accelerating beam with adjustable rotating intensity profile. The lightfields are generated based on high-order Bessel modes and an analytical model is derived to describe the generation and propagation of light-fields. The method is used to fabricated micro-helices with different pitches and handedness in SU-8 photoresist. Beam splitting and galvo-scanning can be implemented in the system. The fabrication of large-scale helical matrices is demonstrated. Compared to point-by-point scanning, our method increases the fabrication throughput by orders of magnitude, paving the way for adopting MPP for mass production of functional devices in many industrial applications.
Helical structures exhibit novel optical and mechanical properties and are commonly used in different fields such as metamaterials and microfluidics. A few methods exist for fabricating helical microstructures, but none of them has the throughput or flexibility required for patterning large surface areas with tunable pitch. In this paper, we report a method for fabricating helical structures with high-throughput and adjustable form based on multiphoton polymerization (MPP) using single-exposure, three-dimensionally structured, self-accelerating, axially tunable light-fields. The light-fields are generated as a superposition of high-order Bessel modes and have a closed-form expression relating the design of the phase mask to the rotation rate of the beam. The method is used to fabricate helices with different pitches and handedness in the material SU-8. Beam splitting and galvo-scanning can be implemented in the system. The fabrication of helical matrices is demonstrated. Compared to point-by-point scanning, our method increases the fabrication speed by two orders of magnitude, paving the way for adopting MPP for mass production of functional devices in many industrial applications.
Ultrashort laser pulse interaction with solid contains an abundant electronic dynamic process. When the laser pulse width reached few-cycle area, surface damage behaviors can reflect the initial light-electron interaction. In this work, we employed an ultrashort laser source to investigate damage behavior on solid. We investigate the potential of the multi-plate medium to generate broad supercontinuum and few-cycle pulses from a relatively high peak and average power Yb solid-state laser source in a single-pass double-stage multi-plate supercontinuum setup. The experiments were performed by focusing the output from a Yb3+: KGW regenerative amplifier, producing pulses from energy of 600mJ(1kHz) and a duration of 170 fs(~5ps tunable), through a set of thin fused silica plates with individual thicknesses of 1mm to 2mm. This resulted in pulse width of 15fs-25fs (4 cycles-7 cycles) continuous tunable laser source to investigate the laser-induced damage behavior of ZnSe and Fused silica. The damage mechanism and damage threshold are explained in the context of the Keldysh theory and critical electron density.
We report on the experimental and theoretical studies of ultrafast laser-induced optical breakdown on the surface of fused silica to elucidate the mechanism of damage formation and sub-optical-cycle dynamics in material processing using single and a burst of two femtosecond laser pulses. Ionization pathways, including photo-ionization (PI) and avalanche ionization (AI), are investigated by using single-beam and double-beam laser damage threshold measurements, which are used to analyze electron dynamics and extract the avalanche coefficient. The relationship between damage size and laser fluence is interpreted as a result of a combination of PI and AI. Electrical field rather than laser intensity is the fundamental influential factor in PI, and AI is found to play a significant role in creating the free electron density needed for optical breakdown. These findings are verified by a double-pulse delay-scan experiment where two cross-polarized pulses are used to induce damage with delay within a few optical cycles. Variation of the damage diameter is observed within one optical cycle, which is explained by the periodic change of polarization in the combined electric field. This finding shows the potential of controlling laser induced damage by tuning the temporal overlap of a burst of ultrashort laser pulses.
High-power, ultrashort laser-induced periodic surface structures (also referred as ripples), which has been observed on metals, dielectrics and semiconductors surface, could be generated and deliberately modulated by controlling the incident laser pulse. The periodicity, orientation and structure are the typical parameters in the study this near/subwavelength structures. The formation mechanism of LIPSS is still under investigation, and the current formation mechanisms on LIPSS include classical surface scattering model, self-organization, second/third harmonic generation, excitation of surface plasma polaritons, coulomb explosion, and cavitation instability and so on. In our work, 1-on-1 and N-on-1 laser-induced damage experiments were conducted on ZnSe substrate by using 170 fs laser and few-cycle laser to verifying the structure dependence with polarization, periodicity, and laser-induced damage threshold. Damage mechanism based on phenomenon was proposed.
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