Abstract

Studies of femtosecond laser ablation are motivated both by its applications in micromachining and by the need to understand optical damage by intense femtosecond laser pulses. Virtually all of the prior studies have been conducted for the cases in which the ablating laser pulse strikes the surface of the material at normal angle of incidence (AOI). However, in practice, many if not most optical elements are used at oblique AOIs (most commonly at 45^O and at Brewster's angle). In spite of the widespread use of optics with oblique incidence of the laser beam, there has been no systematic study reported on the dependence of ablation (or damage) threshold on the AOI for different materials.

© 2017 IEEE