Surface effects of hybrid vibration-assisted femtosecond laser system for micro-hole drilling of copper substrate

Abstract The ultrafast laser based hybrid machining system was studied and a novel approach was demonstrated to improve laser machining quality on metals by vibrating the optical objective lens with a low frequency (500 Hz) and various displacements (0–16.5 μm) during a femtosecond laser machining process. The laser used in this experiment is an amplified Ti:sapphire femtosecond (10−15 s) laser system that generates 100 femtosecond pulses having an energy of 3.5 mJ/pulse with a 5 kHz repetition rate at a central wavelength of 790 nm. It is found that both the wall surface finish of the machined structures and the aspect ratio obtained using the frequency vibration assisted laser machining are improved compared with those derived via laser machining without vibration assistance.