• International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing
  • Vol. 4, Issue 3, 35101 (2022)
Yang Guo1、2, Pei Qiu2, Shaolin Xu2、*, and Gary J Cheng3
Author Affiliations
  • 1School of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People’s Republic of China
  • 2Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, People’s Republic of China
  • 3School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, United States of America
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    DOI: 10.1088/2631-7990/ac6632 Cite this Article
    Yang Guo, Pei Qiu, Shaolin Xu, Gary J Cheng. Laser-induced microjet-assisted ablation for high-quality microfabrication[J]. International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, 2022, 4(3): 35101 Copy Citation Text show less

    Abstract

    Liquid-assisted laser ablation has the advantage of relieving thermal effects of common laser ablation processes, whereas the light scattering and shielding effects by laser-induced cavitation bubbles, suspended debris, and turbulent liquid flow generally deteriorate laser beam transmission stability, leading to low energy efficiency and poor surface quality. Here, we report that a continuous and directional high-speed microjet will form in the laser ablation zone if laser-induced primary cavitation bubbles asymmetrically collapse sequentially near the air-liquid interface under a critical thin liquid layer. The laser-induced microjet can instantaneously and directionally remove secondary bubbles and ablation debris around the laser ablation region, and thus a very stable material removal process can be obtained. The shadowgraphs of high-speed camera reveal that the average speed of laser-induced continuous microjet can be as high as 1.1 m s-1 in its initial 500 μm displacement. The coupling effect of laser ablation, mechanical impact along with the collapse of cavitation bubbles and flushing of high-speed microjet helps achieve a high material removal rate and significantly improved surface quality. We name this uncovered liquid-assisted laser ablation process as laser-induced microjet-assisted ablation (LIMJAA) based on its unique characteristics. High-quality microgrooves with a large depth-to-width ratio of 5.2 are obtained by LIMJAA with a single-pass laser scanning process in our experiments. LIMJAA is capable of machining various types of difficult-to-process materials with high-quality arrays of micro-channels, square and circle microscale through-holes. The results and disclosed mechanisms in our work provide a deep understanding of the role of laser-induced microjet in improving the processing quality of liquid-assisted laser micromachining.
    Yang Guo, Pei Qiu, Shaolin Xu, Gary J Cheng. Laser-induced microjet-assisted ablation for high-quality microfabrication[J]. International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, 2022, 4(3): 35101
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