Femtosecond laser lithography 

Ultra-short pulse lasers allow to deliver optical energy with unprecedented precision. It is not surprising that ultra-short pulses have revolutionized microfabrication technologies. Nowadays, nearly arbitrary shaped two-dimension (2D) and three-dimension (3D) structures with sub-micrometer size can be produced by direct photofabrication techniques using femtosecond lasers. A perfect example is femtosecond lithography where an ultra-short pulse laser system is used for direct scribing on the material or to impress a photosensitive mask.

Lithium Lasers offers cost-effective femtosecond lasers with unbeatable operational stability combined with high peak power

The accuracy of femtosecond lithography processes benefits from the stability of the laser source used. Our femtosecond oscillators, Lithium Six 525 and Lithium Six 1050, present an unbeatable peak-to-peak intensity stability and exceptional long-term average power stability (RMS noise < 0.1%). Thanks to the extreme operational stability our femtosecond oscillators help to increase the production efficiency and precision. Moreover, the high average power, up to 5 Watt for Lithium Six 525 and up to 10 Watt for Lithium Six 1050, allows parallel operation of many platforms with one single laser resulting in a massive decrease of the production costs.

Two-photon polymerization

Fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) micro/nanostructures is required for a variety of applications in the field of micro optics, electronics, telecommunications, biomedicine, microfluidic devices, MEMS, metamaterials. Two-photon polymerization is a photochemical technology that enables to realize the manufacturing of 3D micro/nanostructures with feature sizes beyond the diffraction limit. Ultra-short laser pulses are focused into the volume of photosensitive materials to trigger the two-photon polymerization process.

The extreme stability of Lithium Six lasers guarantees high accuracy in two-photon polymerization

During the complex manufacturing process of 3D micro/nanostructures, appropriate stability of the laser output is required to achieve high resolution and faithful replication of matter structures. Moreover, the resolution is directly proportional to the wavelength of the excitation and 525 nm is a suitable wavelength to achieve sub-100 nm feature sizes. Our green femtosecond laser, Lithium Six 525, guarantees ultra-stable peak to peak power level, unbeatable beam pointing stability and improved long-term power stability (RMS noise < 0.1%). Thanks to these features, Lithium Six 525 represents the right choice for scientific and industrial projects that aim to push the accuracy and the efficiency of 3D micro/nanostructures manufacturing processes.

Micromachining

Nowadays the combination of speed and accuracy in micromachining processes is limited by the characteristics of the laser source integrated into the micromachining platforms. Modern ultra-short pulse laser systems are single pulse lasers that offer very high average powers, short pulse durations and good beam pointing stability. However, single pulses energies way above machining threshold cause detrimental effects and eventually limit speed of ultra-precise machining processes. High frequency burst mode lasers represent the best choice to overcome this issue and achieve unprecedented speed and quality in material processing.

Lithium Lasers is developing an innovative laser system to speed up micromachining processes

LITHIUM LASERS is developing an innovative laser system engineered to emit bursts containing up to 1000 high frequency pulses and able to guarantee higher speed of ultra-precise manufacturing processes. The solid-state technology of this laser system is based on an innovative high-frequency and high-power oscillator that will allow to satisfy the requirements in term of robustness and reliability. Tunable parameters such as number of pulses, burst shape and repetition rate will provide the flexibility necessary to optimize machining performances on different materials.

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