Ultrafast Laser Nanomachining: Doing More With Less

Over the past 10 years, laser-system integrators providing laser micromachining
solutions have been faced with a major challenge; satisfying an increasing demand for
ultra-high precision, at a smaller and smaller scale. From microelectronics to
microfluidics and renewables to healthcare, most applications require stringent
specifications with spatial resolutions for laser machining at or below the micrometer
(μm) level, a process called ‘nanomachining’. That is not a trivial task by any
standards and cannot be met with conventional lasers. Fortunately significant
technological advances achieved in parallel over the same period in ultrafast* laser
technology, seem to be offering a solution