In-situ microscopy of front and rear side ablation processes in alkali aluminosilicate glass using ultra short pulsed laser radiation

The visualization of the nonlinear absorption, the subsequent relaxation of excited states and the formation of defects enables the investigation of fundamental laser-material-interaction as well as the identification of process windows for micromachining of transparent materials with ultra short pulsed laser radiation. In this work, time resolved pump probe microscopy is applied to analyze the laser-material-interaction and to reduce damage inside the material during front- and rear side ablation of nonstrengthened Corning Gorilla glass. The experiments give an insight into the pulse duration dependence of the absorption zone, the influence of the surface geometry, in-volume damage and the formation of transient visible cracks