CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 68 (2019) 193–196

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CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology

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Tailored laser vector fields for high-precision micro-manufacturing

Olivier J. Allegre *, Zhaoqing Li, Lin Li (1)
Laser Processing Research Centre, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, United
Kingdom

A R T I C L E IN F O
A B S T R A C T

Laser processes used in high-precision micro-manufacturing are limited to sub-optimal parameters

Keywords:
Laser micro machining
determined by the inherent characteristics of chosen laser beams and optics. As a result, the processing
Laser accuracy and speed can be reduced. Optical techniques for spatial structuring of laser beam fields allow
Optical improved resolution imaging, yet this has not widely been used in the context of laser micro-
manufacturing. This paperpresents materials processing with structuredbeams to engineer tailored focal
fields and produce specific surface structures on silicon. Our results using radial and azimuthal fields
combined with vortex wavefronts illustrate the potential of these techniques for micro-processing
applications.
© 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of CIRP.

1. Introduction pulse laser processing of silicon. We will characterize the surface

The concept of structured illumination has been successfully
applied to laser beams for a number of years, finding applications
in microscopy, where it allowed to improve imaging resolution [1],
optical telecommunication encryption and multiplexing [2], or
optical trapping [3]. Structured laser beams can also be applied to
laser manufacturing applications. For example, simple beam
structures have been applied to powder cladding [4] or surface
and thin film micro-texturing [5,6]. Other studies showed how
radial or azimuthal polarized beams interact with various
materials during micro-processing [7].
There are many ways in which a laser beam can be structured.
For example, its wavefront can be shaped with Computer
Generated Holograms (CGHs) calculated using inverse Fourier
Transform algorithms designed to produced specific intensity
patterns in the focal plane of the focusing optic [5,6]. Alternatively,
intensity or polarization can be tailored [7–9]. These methods
used spatially variant optics such as Spatial Light Modulators
(SLM)
[5,6], structured waveplates [8] or diffractive optics [3]. Although
ablation characteristics of radially and azimuthally polarized
beams combined with optical vortex fields of various topological
charges, focused with a microscope objective of effective
numerical aperture NA = 0.55. We first use analytical methods to
predict the expected distribution of the focused fields prior to
conducting experiments. The experimental methods are described
next, followed by experimental analysis of surface ablation and
micro-drilling results.
2. Theoretical description of focused fields
The properties of tightly focused structured beams can be
predicted using Richards-Wolf vectorial diffraction methods. The
electric field in the vicinity of the focal point is obtained by the
diffraction integrals over the vector field of the focused spherical
wavefront with radius equal to the objective length focal length, f.
For example, the focal fields of radially or azimuthally polarized
beams can be written as [12]:
ðr; f; zÞ¼E e
þEz ez
þEf ef
r r

not widely used in practical production processes currently, these E ð1Þ

optical tools and techniques are expected to bring considerable !
improvements in the spatial resolution and speed achievable with Where er , ez and ef are the unit vectors along the
existing laser-based processes, by allowing to design optimized radial, longitudinal and azimuthal directions in the focal region,
and Er, Ez and Ef are the amplitudes of each component. The
optical fields in the focal region [3] and thus achieve a much better
normalized amplitude of each component can be written as:
control of laser-material interactions at the work-piece.
2pf
Due to their peculiar properties under tight focusing E r f z cos’ Z uM P u sinu cosu J kr∙sinu eikz∙cosu du
conditions,
2
vortex beams [10] and radially/azimuthally polarized beams [11] r ð; ; Þ¼ 0 0 ðÞ 1 ð Þ ð Þ
have raised significantinterest in recent years, yettherehave
l
beenvery little of their characteristics for surface micro-processing.
investigations
2pf
This paper will explore the response of these beams for ultrashort- Ezðr; f ; z Þ i cos’0 Z uMð PÞ u u
ðkr∙sinu Þ eikz∙cos du ð3Þ
l 0
¼ 0

sin2u J

* Corresponding author.

E-mail address: olivier.allegre@manchester.ac.uk (J. Allegre). 0

 E r f z Z uM P u du 4
sinu J
2pf
sin’ kr∙sinu eikz∙cosu

fð ; ; Þ ðÞ ð Þ ðÞ
l 0 1
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2019.04.125 ¼
0007-8506/© 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of CIRP.
194 O.J. Allegre et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 68 (2019) 193–196
where f0 is the azimuth angle of the incident polarized field (f0
= 0 for radial and f0 = p/2 for azimuthal fields), uM is the maximum
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiby the numerical aperture (NA) of
integration angle determined
the focusing lens, P(u)= cos ffi u is the apodization function of
the
focusing objective, Jn(x) is the Bessel function of the first kind and
k to the limited 10 mm diameter of the laser beam, the effective NA
is the wavenumber.
By taking uM to be consistent with an NA of 0.55, the amplitude
distribution of the electric fields can be predicted for structured
beams focused in the same conditions as in our subsequent
experiments and the results of our model is shown in Fig. 1. It can
be seen that the focused fields are expected to produce annular
profiles for both the radially and azimuthally polarized plane
wavefront beams, with a peak diameter around 1.5 l (or 1.2um for
l = 800 nm). This is consistent with Rayleigh’s diffraction theory,
which predicts a Gaussian focal spot diameter of 2.22 l (or 1.8um
for l = 800 nm) i.e.~1.5 times larger than the peak diameter of a
first
order annular beam under the same focusing conditions
[10,11]. The incident azimuthally polarized beam produces a clear
annular profile with a pure azimuthal polarization in the focal
plane, whereas the incident radially polarized beam produces an
annular profile together with a non-zero longitudinal field in the
centre and a hybrid polarization with radial and longitudinal
components. Circularly polarized beams with vortex field of
topological charge l = 0 (plane wavefront), 1 and 2 produce a
Gaussian profile with a diameter of 2.22 l, an annular profile with a
peak diameter of 1.5 l and 2.3 l respectively (Fig. 1) in
accordance
with theory [13]. We next explore the experimental properties of
each beam.
Fig. 1. Numerical representation of the focal fields of radially (noted R, left column),
azimuthally (noted A, middle column) and circularly (noted C, right column)
polarized beams focused with a 0.55NA objective lens. For the radially and
azimuthally polarized plane wavefront beams (R and A), the top row shows
overall intensity in the focal plane (XY) the second row shows overall intensity
along the optical axis (XZ), the bottom row shows normalized amplitude pro files
of the distinct components in the focal plane. The radially polarized beam (R)
produces an annular radial field (red dotted line) and a Gaussian longitudinal field
(blue dot- dashed line in the centre). The combined field is shown as continuous
red line. The azimuthally polarized beam (A) produces an annular profile with a
pure azimuthal polarization (red dotted lines) without a radial or longitudinal
component. For the circularly polarized beam (C) the top, middle and bottom rows
show the focal plane (XY) intensity for vortex fields of topological charge l = 0 (plane
wavefront), l = 1 and l = 2 respectively.
3. Experimental configurations
For the experiments, a Coherent Libra femtosecond laser
(l = 800 nm, pulse-length = 100 fs) with a× 2 beam expander
(output beam diameter 10 mm) was used with a spatial light
modulator (SLM) to induce vortex wavefronts of topological
charge l = 0, 1, 2 and 3 to the beam. The polarization was then
converted to
either radial or azimuthal fields with a structured waveplate, to a
circularly polarized field with a quarter waveplate or remained
linear by not using any waveplate. A set of two 300 mm focal
length lenses formed a 4-F system to re-image the induced
wavefronts to the pupil aperture of a 0.75NA objective lens. Due
of the lens was
0.55. The beam was focused on the surface of a Si wafer mounted
on a precision 3-axis translation stage (Aerotech), as shown in
Fig. 2. All mirrors are low-group-delay-dispersion, thin-film-
coated ultrafast mirrors (Thorlabs) designed to maintain polariza-
tion purity.
Fig. 2. Schematic representation of the experimental setup. The beam attenuator
consists of a Glan laser polarizer and waveplate to control the incident pulse energy.
The two lenses L1 and L2 form a beam expanding telescope (×2). The SLM
induces vortex wavefronts to the beam and the waveplates (WP) convert its
polarization. Lenses L3 and L4 form a 4F system (not shown to scale here) that
re-images the wavefronts to the pupil aperture of the objective. To analyse beam
intensity profiles,
M2 is flipped towards a CCD profiler (a circularly polarized vortex beam is shown
here).
Each combination of wavefront and polarization state corre-
sponded to one experimental configuration, whose intensity
profiles were first measured with a CCD profiler, before conducting
single pulse surface ablation experiments and micro-drilling
experiments with 100 pulses. After the laser processing experi-
ments were carried out, the sample surfaces were imaged with a
scanning electron microscope (SEM). For each experimental
configuration ~100 surface ablation spots and micro-drilling
structures were produced and the results were averaged to obtain
e.g. diameter and fluence.
The observed beam intensity profiles had the expected double-
lobe of radially and azimuthally polarized beams after propagation
through a polarizing filter [8]. Rotating the polarizer (anti)
clockwise also induced a (anti)clockwise rotation of the intensity
patterns. The measured polarization purity was 79% after the
waveplate and 78% before the objective lens, which confirmed it
was not significantly affected by the optics along the beam path.
When no optical vortex was induced (plane wavefront beams), the
circularly polarized beam was Gaussian and the radially and
azimuthally polarized beams had a nil intensity in the centre
(Fig. 3, top row). Adding a vortex wavefront induced an annular
intensity profile for the circularly polarized beams, with a gradual
increase in diameter as the topological charge increases whereas
radially and azimutally polarized beams incurred a non-zero
spirally shaped structure in the centre (see Fig. 3). Having
completed the description of the unfocused beams, we now
introduce surface processing results.
4. Surface ablation results
SEM micrographs of single pulse ablation spots are shown in
Fig. 4. The top row shows the ablation spots produced when the
beam had plane wavefronts (no optical vortices). The linear and
circular polarizations each produced 2.4+/ —0.2 um diameter
circular spots (the two spots shown on the left) consistent with
those expected of a Gaussian beam and the radial and azimuthal
polarizations produced annular ablation profiles with an outer
diameter of 3.2+/— 0.3 um and an estimated peak diameter of 2.2
+/—0.5 um. These are larger than the theoretical values discussed
above i.e. Gaussian beam spot diameter of 1.8 um and radial/
 O.J. Allegre et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 68 (2019) 193–196
Fig. 3. Beam intensity profiles (in arbitrary units) measured for radially (left
column), azimuthally (middle column) and circularly (right column) polarized
beams analysed with a polarizing filter with its transmission axis oriented
horizontally. The top row shows the plane wavefront beams without vortex
(topological charge l = 0); the second, third and fourth rows show the intensity of
beams with topological charges l = 1, 2 and 3 respectively. The wavefront structures
are shown in the insets.
Fig. 4. SEM micrographs showing the surface ablation spots produced on a silicon
wafer with a single 110 nJ pulse. From left to right, each column was produced with a
beam polarized linearly, circularly, radially and azimuthally (noted L, C, R and A
on top respectively). The four rows are produced with beam vortex wavefront
values of l = 0 (plane wavefront), l = 1, 2 and 3 from top to bottom. These produced
average fluence of 1.8 J/cm2 for the top and second rows (l = 0 and l = 1), 1.1 J/cm2
for the third row (l = 2) and 0.25 J/cm2 for the fourth row (l = 3).
195
azimuthal annular peak diameter of 1.2 um (see Fig. 1), and the
difference is attributed to the incident beam not being a perfect
Gaussian. It is noted the fluence being well above ablation
threshold also contributed to the diameter increase. The second
row shows the ablation spots produced when all the beams had an
optical vortex of topological charge l = 1 induced to the
wavefronts. An interesting reversal of the ablation spot profiles
occurred between the linear and circular polarizations on one
hand, and the radial and azimuthal polarizations on the other. The
addition of an optical vortex to an otherwise Gaussian distribution
(e.g. polarized linearly or circularly) will induce a wavefront
singularity leading to a zero intensity in the centre [10]. The
opposite phenomena occurred when an optical vortex of l = 1 was
induced to a radially or azimuthally polarized beam. The
polarization was converted to pure circular on axis although the
overall polarization of the beam was mixed [8]. The diameter of
ablation spots produced in these latter two cases was slightly
smaller than that produced by linearly and circularly polarized
Gaussian beams with no optical vortex (2.0
+/— 0.2 um versus 2.4+/ 0.2 um respectively). This may be due to
the process of polarization conversion leading to minor lowering
of fluence near the centre of the beam. The third and fourth rows
show the ablation spots when optical vortices of topological charge
l = 2 and l = 3 respectively were applied to all the beams. The
results show that the ablation spot diameter increased linearly
with the topological charge. In the bottom line (l = 3) the ablation
was not as uniform as the other cases. This is due to the fact the
same incident pulse energy was applied to all cases, meaning that
as the ablation spot surface area increases, the fluence degreases
as well and with l = 3, fluence reaches a value close to the ablation
threshold (which is 0.28 J/cm2 for silicon at these wavelength
[14]). This is also visible by observing the melt rims around the
ablation spots, clearly visible in the top spots but gradually
receding as topological charge increases in the subsequent spots
due to the lower fluence nearer to the ablation threshold. A simple
increase in pulse energy would allow one to improve uniformity.
5. Micro-drilling results
Our next experiments consisted of testing the micro-drilling
capabilities of each type of beams, by applying 100 pulses at each
point on the surface to allow surface ablation spots to develop into
deeper structures. Fig. 5 shows a top view of the holes produced
with each type of beams. The top row shows micro-holes produced
when the beams had plane wavefronts (no optical vortex). The two
holes on the left were produced with Gaussian beams polarized
linearly and circularly. In the case of linear polarization (left) the
hole is elliptical, oriented along the direction of polarization
vector.
Fig. 5. SEM micrographs showing micro-holes produced on a silicon wafer surface
with 100 pulse at 110 nJ. From left to right, each column is produced with a beam
polarized linearly, circularly, radially and azimuthally (noted L, C, R and A on top
respectively). The four rows are produced with beam vortex wavefront values of l = 0
(plane wavefront), 1, 2 and 3 respectively from top to bottom. Arrows show the local
state of polarization for plane wavefront beams.
196 O.J. Allegre et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 68 (2019) 193–196
This is due to the differential reflectivity between s- and p-
polarization during drilling, which enhanced absorptivity in the
regions where polarization vectors were perpendicular to the
sidewalls [7], leading to elongated holes with extra ablation along
the direction of the polarization vector as shown in Fig. 6. The hole
produced with circular polarization was more uniform due to the
isotropicityoflaser-materialinteractions in thiscase, although it
was not completely free of ellipticity. The holes produced with
radial and azimuthal polarization on the right-hand-side had
larger diameters (3.8+/ 0.3 um and 3.2+/ 0.3 um respectively) than
those —
produced with the two Gaussian beams on the left (2.6+/ 0.3
um diameter average). This is due to the larger—surface spot size
produced with these beams, together with their better isotropicity
and coupling during drilling. The relatively large diameter
produced with radial polarization in the top row in Fig.5 can be
explained by the generalized p-polarized reflectivity it induces
during drilling which leads to more efficient laser-material energy
coupling. On the other hand, azimuthal polarizationproduced a
narrowerhole, whichisdue to its enhanced s-polarized reflectivity
inside the developing holes that leads to better channelling of laser
energy towards the deeper regions and hence is expected to be
better suited to drill deeper narrower holes [7].
Fig. 6. (Left) Schematic representation of the drilling process, where internal
reflectivity on the sidewalls is strongly influenced by the local state of
polarization. For linear polarization (noted L), this leads to improved coupling in
the regions where p-polarization dominates, resulting in elongated holes parallel
to the direction of polarization. Circular, radial and azimuthal polarizations (noted C,
R and A respectively) all lead to improved uniformity, with maximum coupling
efficiency thus larger drilling diameters achieved with radial polarization.
The second row shows the holes drilled with beams that had
vortex wavefronts of topological charge l = 1. The holes produced
with linear and circular polarization on the left had generally the
same features as those without optical vortices, but with larger
diameter thus indicating that an optical vortex can help enhance
coupling efficiency under these experimental conditions. The holes
produced with the radial and azimuthal vortex beams produced
smaller diameter holes than those with no optical vortex.
Interestingly, peripheral structures developed around the rim of
these holes. The beam with an incident radial polarization
produced an annular trench approximately 0.4+/—0.04 um wide
around the main hole, whereas the beam with an incident
azimuthal polarization produced a ring of periodic radially
oriented indentations with a pitch of around 0.4+/—0.04 um. From
their pitch and size <l, these structures are consistent with self-
organized Laser Induced Periodic Surface Structures (LIPSS)
typically generated through multi-pulse irradiation with a
femtosecond laser [5,8] and may thus give an indication of the
local polarization state in the peripheral region around the hole
rims. The holes produced with optical vortices of topological
charge l = 2 and 3 are shown in the third and fourth rows
respectively in Fig. 5. The results show that these types of beams
produce annular shaped holes with a diameter that increases with
topological charge l. The linearly polarized vortex beams (left
column) produced LIPSS type structures, clearly oriented orthogo-
nal to the direction of incident polarization, which is horizontal in
Fig. 5. It is clear from these results that LIPSS are detrimental to
the quality of processing in this case. The annular holes produced
with
the circularly polarized vortex beams (second column) had better
quality, due to their isotropic laser-material coupling with no clear
LIPSS formation. The holes produced with the incident radially
polarized vortex beams showed uniform annular holes, albeit with
LIPSS like structures around the rims. The beams with incident
azimuthal polarization produced annular holes, although these
were distorted and lacked uniformity. It is noted that negative
topological charges l =— 1, —2 and 3 were also tested and these
produced similar features as in Figs. 4 and 5, showing that neither
surface ablation nor micro-drilling are sensitive to vortex
handness.
6. Conclusions
In this paper we explored the characteristics of structured laser
beams, tailored to produce radial and azimuthal fields with various
vortexhelicity in the focalregion of a high-NA focusingobjective.
The surface ablation and micro-drilling results on silicon
demonstrated the improved control of laser-material coupling and
reflectivity during processing, leading to a better control over the
diameter and geometry of the produced micro-holes, allowing to
imprint or drill concentric or annular micro-structures with a high
precision and to control the formation of micro-structure on the
sidewalls and rims around the holes. These results illustrate how
tailored vector fields can be used to improve the flexibility and
speed of micro- manufacturing applications involving micro-
drilling, surface or thin film texturing and polarization sensitive
interactions such as Multi- Photon Ionization and internal
structuring of materials.
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