Other materials

Ceramics crack, semiconductors chip and organic materials char, each under a different kind of thermal load. Femtosecond laser pulses are over before heat leaves the focal volume, so ceramic is milled, silicon and GaAs wafers are cut clean, organics are machined without burnt edges, and dielectric surfaces are activated for metallization.

Material processing

Material processing Glass Metal Polymer Other materials

Other materials

Heat-sensitive organic material processing with femtosecond laser

Organic materials are typically very sensitive to induced heat, which can cause warping and burnt edges during processing. Femtosecond lasers are an excellent solution for these materials because their ultra-short pulse duration prevents significant heat transfer to the material’s lattice, ensuring high accuracy and quality processing.

FemtoLux 30 laser was used to process thin organic materials for medical applications. These materials are particularly susceptible to thermal accumulation. By utilizing the short pulse duration of 350 fs and combining it with high scanning speeds, the cutting of these thin organic materials was achieved without inducing significant thermal effects. Cutting speeds of 100 mm/s was reached, demonstrating the laser’s capability to process heat-sensitive materials efficiently and precisely.

Heat-sensitive organic material cutting.

Courtesy of FTMC.

Manufacturing examples

Publications

Heat sensitive

Ultrashort Pulse Laser Fabrication and Evaluation of Innovative Resorbable Barbed Sutures

K. Nambi Gowri, W. Al Asad, S. Majumder, X. Zhao, and M. W. King, Polymers 17 (4) (2025). DOI: 10.3390/polym17040544.

Laser micro-machining is a rapidly growing technique to create, manufacture and fabricate microstructures on different materials ranging from metals and ceramics to polymers. Micro- and nano-machining on different materials has been helpful and useful for various biomedical applications. This study focuses on the micro-machining of innovative barbed sutures using an ultrashort pulse laser, specifically a femtosecond (fs) laser system. Two bioresorbable polymeric materials, namely, catgut and poly (4-hydroxybutyrate) (P4HB), were studied and micro-machined using the femtosecond (fs) laser system. The optimized laser parameter was used to fabricate two different barb geometries, namely, straight and curved barbs. The mechanical properties were evaluated via tensile testing, and the anchoring performance was studied by means of a suture–tissue pull-out protocol using porcine dermis tissue which was harvested from the medial dorsal site. Along with the evaluation of the mechanical and anchoring properties, the thermal characteristics and degradation profiles were assessed and compared against mechanically cut barbed sutures using a flat blade. The mechanical properties of laser-fabricated barbed sutures were significantly improved when compared to the mechanical properties of the traditionally/mechanically cut barbed sutures, while there was not any significant difference in the anchoring properties of the barbed sutures fabricated through either of the fabrication techniques. Based on the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results for thermal transitions, there was no major impact on the inherent material properties due to the laser treatment. This was also observed in the degradation results, where both the mechanically cut and laser-fabricated barbed sutures exhibited similar profiles throughout the evaluation time period. It was concluded that switching the fabrication technique from mechanical cutting to laser fabrication would be beneficial in producing a more reproducible and consistent barb geometry with more precision and accuracy.

Open publication

Heat sensitive

Managing Residual Heat Effects in Femtosecond Laser Material Processing by Pulse-on-Demand Operation

J. Petelin, M. Marš, J. Mur, and R. Petkovšek, Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing 8 (6) (2024). DOI: 10.3390/jmmp8060254.

Heat sensitive

Experimental investigation into ultrafast laser ablation of polypropylene by burst and single pulse modes

J. Molinuevo, E. Rodríguez‑Vidal, I. Quintana, M. Morales, and C. Molpeceres, Optics & Laser Technology 152, 108098 (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.optlastec.2022.108098.

Similar applications

50 µm depth groove formation in ceramic.

Femtosecond laser formation of grooves in ceramic

Ceramic is hard and brittle: mechanical processing presses on it with large forces and can crack the substrate. Femtosecond laser pulses form grooves without mechanical contact. Grooves 30, 50 and 70 µm deep were scribed at speeds up to 44.1 mm/s, and the 343 nm wavelength reduced the heat-affected zone from 8.23 µm to 4.88 µm.

Optical 3D profilometer image of milled alumina squares in different operational modes.

Ceramic processing with GHz burst

Femtosecond lasers mill ceramics precisely but slowly. GHz bursts raise the throughput: trains of pulses at GHz intra-burst repetition rates split one high-energy pulse into many smaller ones. With 92 pulses per burst, alumina milling throughput rose from 6.39 mm³/min in single-pulse mode to 10.38 mm³/min.

SEM image of a trench milled in GaAs under a layer of water.

Femtosecond processing of GaAs in air and water

Milling GaAs in ambient air leaves a band of debris redeposited along the trench walls. Under a layer of water the same process cuts deeper and cleaner: trench depth rose from 58 µm to 105 µm and the redeposition band shrank from 34 µm to 7.6 µm. Ablation efficiency was higher in all three regimes tested.

Femtosecond laser cutting of FZ-Si wafer

Mechanical dicing follows silicon’s crystallographic cleave planes, so diced chips come out with straight edges only. Femtosecond pulses cut FZ-Si wafers along curved contours instead: a 0.4 mm float-zone wafer was cut with a low heat-affected zone and an undamaged bottom surface.

Selective Surface Activation Induced by Laser (SSAIL)

SSAIL is a new technology developed by Center for Physical Sciences and Technology and Akonner for writing electronic circuits directly onto the dielectric material.

All applications

Heat-sensitive organic material processing with femtosecond laser

Manufacturing examples

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