Ablation of steel using picosecond laser pulses in burst mode

Results obtained in picosecond laser processing of steel applying the burst mode are presented. Using the burst mode, pulse trains, i.e., bursts, consisting of a number of picosecond pulses with an inter-pulse delay of 12.5 ns and 10 ps pulse duration are applied for material processing. Small cavities with sizes in the range of the laser beam diameter made by single-burst ablation are compared to quadratic cavities of 0.5 x 0.5 mm(2) produced by multiburst ablation and simultaneous scanning of the laser beam across the steel sample surface. The ablated volume per pulse within the burst was calculated either from the ablated volume per burst or from the ablation depth of the quadratic cavities. With the second to fourth pulses in the bursts, a reduction of the ablated volume per pulse in comparison with the first pulse in the bursts (i.e., to the use of single pulses) was found for both single-and multiburst ablation, which is assumed to be due to plasma shielding. By contrast, the ablated volume per pulse within the bursts increases for the fifth to eighth pulses. Heat accumulation effect and the influence of the heated plasma can be assumed to be the reason for these higher ablation rates. SEM micrographs also show that there is a higher melt ejection out of the laser processed area. This is indicated by the formation of bulges about the ablated area.