Femtosecond laser machining of dielectric materials for biomedical applications

Abstract

In this paper, we present results of femtosecond laser machining of dielectric materials including glass, quartz, and PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) polymer. A systematic DOE (design of experiments) study was developed to determine the relationship between process variable settings and machining quality for glass. The machining quality was evaluated by varying laser fluence, scanning speed, polarization, and focus spot overlap (determined by scan speed, pulse repetition rate and scan speed). The ablation results showed that the ablation depth is strongly dependent on laser fluence and overlap. The polarization direction was also found to affect channel shape. The glass channel surfaces were somewhat rough for the intended application so a hydrogel coating technique for producing smoother channels was demonstrated. The developed process was also applied for the fabrication of a DNA stretching device using PDMS.In this paper, we present results of femtosecond laser machining of dielectric materials including glass, quartz, and PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) polymer. A systematic DOE (design of experiments) study was developed to determine the relationship between process variable settings and machining quality for glass. The machining quality was evaluated by varying laser fluence, scanning speed, polarization, and focus spot overlap (determined by scan speed, pulse repetition rate and scan speed). The ablation results showed that the ablation depth is strongly dependent on laser fluence and overlap. The polarization direction was also found to affect channel shape. The glass channel surfaces were somewhat rough for the intended application so a hydrogel coating technique for producing smoother channels was demonstrated. The developed process was also applied for the fabrication of a DNA stretching device using PDMS.