Saturation effects in femtosecond laser ablation of silicon-on-insulator

We report a surface morphology study on single-shot submicron features fabricated on silicon on insulator by tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses. In the regime just below single-shot ablation threshold nano-tips are formed, whereas in the regime just above single-shot ablation threshold, a saturation in the ablation depth is found. We attribute this saturation by secondary laser absorption in the laser-induced plasma. In this regime, we find excellent agreement between the measured depths and a simple numerical model. When the laser fluence is further increased, a sharp increase in ablation depth is observed accompanied by a roughening of the ablated hole. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3666423]