New laser technology --ultra fast laser
Ultra fast laser applies to diamond, sapphire, glass, semiconductor, metal, polymer and other materials precision fine machining.
Let the time back to the 1980-1990 era, then all optical scientists in the laboratory of painstaking design, adjustment of ultrafast laser transmission, focusing, try to irradiation on a variety of materials, in order to find the moment of arrival (they actually found a large number of unusual phenomena), they don't think twenty or thirty after years of ultrafast laser processing workshop has quietly entered the consumer electronics factory, entered the hospital to carry out precise eye surgery, a key ring into the sophisticated components manufacturing.
Today, many people around the world are beginning to rely on ultra fast lasers because they can do many jobs that conventional methods do not.
Ultrafast laser called ultrashort pulse laser, its main characteristic parameters for the laser pulse width from several to 10 femtosecond picosecond pulse repetition frequency, from single pulse to 100MHz, laser wavelength from UV to ir.
After nearly 30 years of research and development, ultra fast laser non hot and cold processing attributes began to be loved. It is suitable for the machining of high precision and complex shape devices which can not be realized by other processing methods. Ultrafast laser micromachining of the main principle is the use of ultrafast laser pulse focusing "focus" and the material nonlinear interaction, the minimum can induce photochemical changes in sub wavelength to the nanometer scale and the local material properties changed by computer pattern generation and "focus" scanning, multi beam interference and self coherence etc. the way, micro structure, micro device fabrication.
The advantages of ultrafast laser micromachining are summarized as follows:
The suitable materials of broad spectrum, especially difficult processing materials.The photon energy of ultrafast laser beam is highly concentrated in time, after focusing power density can reach a very high value, the use of ordinary commercial ultrafast laser can induce an easy job to do almost any material molecular bonds break and ionization state, and physical property variation caused by the irreversible phase transition provides a physical basis for ultrafast laser material processing.Due to the high strength, ultrafast laser processing has a broad spectrum of materials, including diamond, sapphire, glass, semiconductors, metals, ceramics and polymers and other materials.
The processing precision is high, suitable for the preparation of complex 3D structures.Due to the nonlinear absorption processes such as multiphoton absorption cross section is very small, light excitation in the focal region of bounded minimum detention area; in addition, due to the excitation of ultrafast, avoid thermal relaxation, so ultrafast become a quasi adiabatic process, and light as an electromagnetic wave is different from the real particle wave, can penetrate the transparent material, processed from the inside.These guarantee ultrafast laser processing with high three-dimensional processing resolution, even exceeding the optical diffraction limit, to nanometer scale.
The non mask technique, suitable for non planar processing.Ultra fast laser micro machining is controlled by computer program, and is scanned in accordance with the drawings of the structure to be processed.The pattern definition does not require mask assistance, and is a non mask micro nanofabrication technique.Without the mask, the laser focus can be scanned by the optical surface, and the microstructure is fabricated on the non flat surface substrate.
At present, ultrafast laser micro machining has been widely used in consumer electronics, Bio Medical, aerospace, information technology, new energy, new materials and other industries.The processing techniques include drilling, scribing, slotting, surface texturing, surface modification, internal modification, welding, finishing, cleaning, etc..Around these ultrafast laser processing technology, industry chain related enterprises and research institutes are developing more stable performance, low cost and ultrafast laser device, beam shaping space transmission technology, combined with the optimal processing technology of material properties and manufacturing technology and intelligent control of.
According to the special study on photonic and laser industry Strategies Unlimited predicts that the global sales laser market in 2019 will reach $12 billion, while the total market of ultrafast laser will exceed $1 billion 400 million, the market growth rate is the ultrafast laser laser market grew two times as fast.The growth rate of femtosecond laser is larger than picosecond laser.The gap between the two is shrinking, which will lead to the use of femtosecond lasers in picosecond laser applications.
Extending from the perspective of industry chain, the laser industry should look like this, the laser output value of 1 billion yuan, 5 billion yuan output value of the laser processing system to the application to provoke the output value of 50 billion yuan, so that by 2020 up to the size of the ultrafast laser industry chain to more than $70 billion of the scale.As early as 2010, the United States Raydiance company (acquired by Coherent in 2015) President Scott Davidson predicted that in 10 years, ultrafast laser technology will have more than $100 billion market, and now his prediction is becoming a reality.
Domestic and foreign companies engaged in ultrafast laser device manufacturing and ultrafast laser micro processing technology have sprung up to seize the emerging market of ultrafast laser micro processing.Although there are a number of companies developing femtosecond laser devices both at home and abroad, Tom Hausken, chief analyst at Strategies Unlimited, thinks"...More value, that is, significant revenues and profits, comes not from lasers, but from systems built around lasers.Therefore, there are many opportunities here......".
At present, around the ultrafast laser industry domestic and foreign mergers and acquisitions after another, the laser and optoelectronics industry giants layout, the ultrafast laser industry chain enterprises implementing mergers and acquisitions in recent five years, nearly twenty mergers and acquisitions have been implemented, you Changba me play, the next few years, people will see more mergers and acquisitions.
Although it has infinite bright future for the development of ultrafast laser micromachining, but should be aware that the current mature ultrafast laser applications market is very limited, with a large number of companies and into the pursuit of capital, will cause the early industrial overheating will also usher in the bottleneck of industrial development and even short-term slump.But in the near future, with the development of more applications, a broader market will emerge, and ultrafast laser micro machining will flourish for a long time.
