Heat accumulation in ultra-short pulsed scanning laser ablation of metals

High average laser powers can have a serious adverse impact on the ablation quality in ultra-short pulsed laser material processing of metals. With respect to the scanning speed, a sharp transition between a smooth, reflective and an uneven, dark ablated surface is observed. Investigating the influence of the sample temperature, it is experimentally shown that this effect stems from heat accumulation. In a numerical heat flow simulation, the critical scanning speed indicating the change in ablation quality is determined in good agreement with the experimental data. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America