Effect of the chemical composition on the ablation characteristics of glass substrates in femtosecond laser machining

In this work, we investigated the ablation characteristics of aluminosilicate, soda-lime, and borosilicate glass substrates in femtosecond laser processing. The laser wavelength was 1,552 nm with a pulse duration of 800 fs. The ablation threshold energy of each glass substrate was estimated using the D² method. To determine the ablation threshold energy of each glass substrate, the weight percentages of various chemical components in the glass substrates were quantitatively analyzed by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The ablation threshold energy of the glass substrates was found to depend on the Al₂O₃ and MgO contents. When the weight percentages of both components were higher, the ablation threshold energy was lower. The effect of these components on the ablation threshold energy was theoretically investigated using self-trapped exciton analysis.