Three dimensional microstructures in ceramics by diode pumped solid state lasers

The application of diode pumped solid state laser radiation for producing three dimensional microstructures is of great interest to materials, which are difficult to structure by conventional machining methods. For obtaining controlled processing and processing results the material removal, the available precision and roughness must be determined. Strategies that permit an efficient manufacturing of structures smaller than 100 mu m in ceramics and hard metals are developed. The influence of repetition rate, pulse energy, overlap and processing gas atmosphere on material removal, roughness, geometry and recast layer are discussed.