Abstract
The favorable combination of high material removal rate and low influence on the material beneath the ultra-short pulsed laser-processed surface are of particular advantage for sample preparation. This is especially true at the micrometer scale or for the pre-preparation for a subsequent focused ion beam milling process. Specific surface features, the laser-induced periodic surface structures, are generated on femtosecond laser-irradiated surfaces in most cases, which pose an issue for surface-sensitive mechanical testing or microstructural investigations. This work strives for an approach to enhance the surface quality of glancing-incident laser-processed surfaces on the model material copper with two distinctly different grain sizes. A new generalized perspective is presented, in which optimized parameter selection serves to counteract the formation of the laser-induced periodic surface structures, enabling, for example, grain orientation mapping directly on femtosecond laser processed surfaces.
Highlights
Ultra-short pulsed (USP) lasers have become a favorable tool in material science in recent years, since technological advances lowered hardware costs, such that these lasers found widespread application for surface modification and advanced laser cutting of various materials.[1]
The favorable combination of high material removal rate and low influence on the material beneath the ultra-short pulsed laser-processed surface are of particular advantage for sample preparation
A classification of the surface regarding laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) formation was applied on every trench via scanning electron microscope (SEM) images
Summary
Ultra-short pulsed (USP) lasers have become a favorable tool in material science in recent years, since technological advances lowered hardware costs, such that these lasers found widespread application for surface modification and advanced laser cutting of various materials.[1]. With the combination of well-established mechanical pre-preparation and other high ablation methods, such as electrode discharge milling or ion slicing,[6] prior to high precision methods, commonly FIB milling, the preparation time is reduced considerably. This is especially true for specimens with dimensions in the range of tens to hundreds of micrometers. USP lasers, open completely new possibilities for the field of micro-fabrication,[2,4,7] where a high ablation rate,[8,9,10,11] in combination with form-free milling and absolute precision in the ten-micrometer range, allows closing the gap between the prepreparation and the final manufacturing of a testing geometry. Precise and fast specimen preparation even allows for a statistically-based material assessment on the micro-scale.[12]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
