Abstract
High-quality optical glass diffusers have applications in aerospace, displays, imaging systems, medical devices, and optical sensors. The development of rapid and accurate fabrication techniques is highly desirable for their production. Here, a micropatterning method for the fast fabrication of optical diffusers by means of nanosecond pulsed laser ablation is demonstrated (λ=1064 nm, power=7.02, 9.36 and 11.7 W and scanning speed=200 and 800 mm s-1). The experiments were carried out by point-to-point texturing of a glass surface in spiral shape. The laser machining parameters, the number of pulses and their power had significant effect on surface features. The optical characteristics of the diffusers were characterized at different scattering angles. The features of the microscale structures influenced average roughness from 0.8 μm to 1.97 μm. The glass diffusers scattered light at angles up to 20° and their transmission efficiency were measured up to ∼97% across the visible spectrum. The produced optical devices diffuse light less but do so with less scattering and energy losses as compared to opal diffusing glass. The presented fabrication method can be applied to any other transparent material to create optical diffusers. It is anticipated that the optical diffusers presented in this work will have applications in the production of LED spotlights and imaging devices.
Highlights
Optical diffusers are widely used to distribute the light intensity from a focused light source to expand the beam.[1,2] Optical diffusers are categorized according to their characteristics to distribute radiant energy effectively from an incident source in the far field.[3]
We report the fabrication of optical diffusers by using nanosecond laser induced surface texturing
The experimental parameters were optimized not to pass this average power threshold. These results provide some insight into the laser settings required to create optical diffusers as the roughness of the textured surfaces affects their performance.[23,24]
Summary
Yetisen,[3] and Haider Butt1,b 1School of Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, Shaqra University, P.O. Box 90, Dawadmi 11921, Saudi Arabia 3Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA (Received 18 December 2016; accepted 16 February 2017; published online 28 February 2017)
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