Efficient and high-throughput ablation of platinum using high-repetition rate radially and azimuthally polarized sub-picosecond laser pulses.

A highly productive ablation process of 100 nm thick platinum films with a processed area rate of up to 378 cm/min is presented using radially and azimuthally polarized laser beams. This was achieved by developing a laser amplifier generating 757 fs long laser pulses at a maximum average power of 390 W and a repetition rate of 10.6 MHz with adjustable polarization states, i.e., linear, radial, and azimuthal polarization on the work piece. The pulse train emitted from the laser was synchronized to a custom-designed polygon scanner and directed into an application machine.