High-speed machining of glass materials by laser-induced plasma-assisted ablation using a 532-nm laser

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:YAG laser (532 nm). The plasma generated from a silver (Ag) target by the laser irradiation effectively assists in ablation of the fused quartz substrate by the same laser beam, although the laser beam is transparent to the substrate. A grating with a cross-sectional shape like a square-wave (period ≈ 20 μm) is achieved using the mask projection technique. The ablation rate reaches several tens nm/pulse. In addition, LIPAA is applied to high-speed hole drilling (700 μm in diameter) of fused-quartz (0.5 mm thick) and Pyrex glass (0.5 mm thick).