Studies on laser ablation of silicon using near IR picosecond and deep UV nanosecond lasers

Micromachining and other processing of different materials using lasers have been the focus of a large number of investigations in recent years. In this study, we investigate the interactions of two different lasers with crystalline silicon in air. The first laser is a solid state Ti:sapphire laser that has a pulse width of ∼110 ps and emits radiation of a wavelength in the near infrared (IR) region of 785 nm. The second laser is an excimer laser that emits radiation in the deep ultraviolet region (DUV) at a wavelength of 193 nm and has a pulse width of ∼ 4 ns. The excimer laser has a flat-top beam profile while the picosecond laser has a Gaussian beam profile. A series of craters was produced on a crystalline silicon wafer at different fluence, repetition rate, and number of pulses, and the resultant craters were characterized offline for surface morphology and ablation rate using optical and scanning electron microscopy. At low fluence, ablation with the excimer laser produced clean craters with minimal ejection of molten material. Increasing the fluence increased the amount of molten material deposited around the ablation crater, as well as the crater depth. Particles of different shapes and sizes with distributions depending on the number of laser pulses and laser fluence were observed around the ablation craters. Ablation rate was found to be dependent on the repetition rate of the excimer laser. Craters produced by picosecond laser pulses showed surface morphology and ablation rate differences from those of craters produced by excimer laser pulses. The differences in crater morphology, ablation rate, and ablation threshold observed using the two different types of laser can be attributed to differences in the properties of the two laser beams.