| Abstract [eng] |
Transparent and high-hardness materials have become an object of wide interest due to their optical and mechanical properties, most notably concerning technical glasses and crystals such as sapphire. However, the processing of such brittle materials is rather complicated. Femtosecond laser-based microprocessing techniques are a desirable alternative for glass and crystal microprocessing. The selective laser-induced etching (SLE) technique could be a good option even for high-complexity 3D structure formation from glasses and crystals. SLE is a multiple-step microprocessing technique. First, porous modifications called nanogratings are inscribed inside the glass volume. Subsequently, laser-modified samples are etched in aggressive etchants such as HF or KOH, which are used to etch out modified material. In this way, arbitrary shaped structures in glass or crystals can be created. High process selectivity value allows for the formation of complex high aspect ratio structures such as micromechanical parts or components, microfluidics and even complex microfluidics with an already integrated micromechanical component. Application areas for such structures are sensing, lab-on-chip devices, nozzles and possibly others. The technology mentioned sounds perspective in many areas: SLE made microstructures could be used in microrobotics or lab-on-chip applications using optimized protocols. Thus, this dissertation is dedicated to improving the fused silica selective laser-induced etching technique and developing the crystalline sapphire selective laser-induced etching process. Finally, selective laser-induced etching will be applied to functional structure formation, and some perspective applications of formed structures will be presented. |
