Direct micromachining of quartz glass plates using pulsed laser plasma soft x-rays

Abstract

We have investigated direct micromachining of quartz glass, using pulsed laser plasma soft x-rays (LPSXs) having a potential capability of nanomachining because the diffraction limit is ∼10nm. The LPSX’s were generated by irradiation of a Ta target with 532nm laser light from a conventional Q switched Nd:YAG laser at 700mJ∕pulse. In order to achieve a sufficient power density of LPSX’s beyond the ablation threshold, we developed an ellipsoidal mirror to obtain efficient focusing of LPSXs at around 10nm. It was found that quartz glass plates are smoothly ablated at 45nm∕shot using the focused and pulsed LPSX’s.