Simultaneous machining of parallel grooves in SnO(2) thin films using a Nd:YAG laser and a kinoform.

A kinoform is used to split the beam of a Nd:YAG laser into six beams. The laser beams are, by means of optical fibers and collimating-focusing optics, transferred to the surface to be machined. Thus multiple grooves can be machined simultaneously. For demonstration, 100-µm-wide grooves are simultaneously machined into a SnO(2) thin film deposited on a glass substrate. The resulting grooves are well isolated. This result shows that the technique could be used, for example, in solar cell manufacturing to increase the efficiency of laser scribing.