Ablation characteristics and material removal mechanism of a β-Ga2O3 processed by picosecond laser

β-Ga2O3, as an emerging wide bandgap semiconductor material, has been attracting much attention in recent years. To promote the progress of β-Ga2O3 in laser processing, microchannels were fabricated on the surface of β-Ga2O3 using picosecond laser, and the surface morphology and internal structure of the microchannels were characterized. Rastering on a β-Ga2O3 substrate created surface nanostructures including laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) at a low spatial frequency (period 861∼958 nm). These highly aligned periodic structures can be controlled by laser scanning speed. In addition, the ablation threshold of single pulse is extended to multi-pulse ablation threshold, which is more in line with the actual processing requirements. The interaction mechanism between ultrashort pulse laser and β-Ga2O3 is discussed using a two-temperature model (TTM).