Single and multi-pulse 266nm nanosecond solid-state laser ablation of SiC

In this paper, 266 nm nanosecond solid-state laser machining of SiC was experimentally investigated. Atomic force microscope and optical microscopy are used to detect the ablation morphology of specimens. The changes in the diameter of the ablated holes and depth of single and multi-pulse laser ablation of SiC were studied and the removal mechanism was analyzed. The results show that in the single-pulse ablation experiment, as the laser energy density increases, the diameter of the ablated holes gradually increases, and the ablation depth increases first and then decreases. In the multi-pulse machining experiment, the average depth per pulse increases as the laser density increasing when the number of the laser pulse is less than 125 pulses. When the number of laser pulses is more than 125 pulses, the average depth per pulse increases as the laser density at lower laser density; whereas, the average depth per pulse keeps a constant value at higher laser density.