Femtosecond laser welding of sapphire-copper using a thin film titanium interlayer

• Sapphire and Cu can be directly welded through femtosecond laser-induced micro-welding under non-optical contact conditions. • Prefabricated titanium (Ti) film on the sapphire surface via femtosecond laser-induced backward transfer were used to improve the bonding strength . • The interface connection mechanism and reinforcement mechanism of sapphire and purple copper were studied. The ability to weld metals and sapphire is widely required in aerospace, micro-electro-mechanical systems and microwave energy delivery devices. The experiments of femtosecond laser welding between sapphire and copper (Cu) were conducted under non-optical contact conditions. And the effect of pre-fabricating a Ti film on the sapphire surface using femtosecond laser on the bonding strength of ssapphire/Cu joint was investigated. The interface of the sapphire/Cu directly welded by femtosecond laser contains a mixture of sapphire and copper, and the shear strength of the sapphire/Cu interface was approximately 46.4 MPa. The results indicated that the laser-induced molten state of sapphire and the laser-ablated copper mixed together at the interface, filling the gaps and forming an effective metallurgical bond. And then, in the case that the Ti film was prepared on the sapphire surface through femtosecond laser-induced backward transfer (LIBT), a Ti transition layer between sapphire and cooper was observed on the bonding interface of the joint, and the shear strength of the joint increased to approximately 115.5 MPa. A mixture of sapphire, copper, titanium, and titanium oxide was observed at the interface of the joint. The Ti layer between sapphire and copper may effectively alleviated residual stresses at the interface and promoted bonding between copper and sapphire, thereby improving the strength of the joint. The methods and results of this study have reference value for the ultrafast laser bonding between other transparent brittle materials and metals.