Controllable removal of silicon carbide at nano scale by ion-implantation assisted laser machining

Laser machining has achieved successes in fabricating micro/nano-structures on polymers. For brittle materi-als having no photopolymerization effect, it is extremely difficult to obtain nanometric surface finish. A novel method is proposed to reduce the electronic band gap by ion implantation in this study. A specific laser wave-length is selected so that only the electrons in the implanted zones are excited by one photon while others by multi-photon. As a result, ablation threshold is lowered and selective material removal is successfully achieved. Experimental results show the proposed approach can reduce the surface roughness to one-sixth of that by traditional laser machining.& COPY; 2023 CIRP. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

A novel method is proposed to reduce the electronic band gap by ion implantation, achieving successful fabrication of micro/nano-structures on brittle materials. The proposed approach lowers the ablation threshold and enables selective material removal, resulting in a surface roughness one-sixth of that achieved by traditional laser machining.