Precise etching of fused silica for refractive and diffractive micro-optical applications

One of the challenges of current laser material processing is the high-quality etching of transparent materials for micro-optical applications. The ablation of transparent materials with UV-, ultrashort pulse and even of VUV-lasers is characterized by a high etch rate and a high laser fluence and causes considerable surface roughness evolution. The combination of specific laser processing techniques, e.g., scanning contour mask technique and direct writing with a small laser spot, with laser-induced backside wet etching (LIBWE) allows the direct machining of dielectric materials with an almost optical quality for the fabrication of diffractive as well as refractive topographic features. The etching of multi-level elements, gratings with variable depth, micro-lenses as well as free-form surface topographies with PV-values from some 100 nm to a few micrometers, a nanometer depth accuracy and a low roughness of less than 10 nm rms is presented and demonstrates the capabilities of this approach for precision engineering.