Comparing ablation induced by fs, ps, and ns XUV-laser pulses

Ablation thresholds, etch rates, and quality of ablated structures often differ dramatically if a conventional, UV-Vis-IR laser delivers radiation energy onto a material surface in a short (nanosecond) or ultra-short (picosecond/femtosecond) pulses. Various short-wavelength (λ < 100 nm) lasers emitting pulses with durations ranging from ~ 10 fs to ~ 1 ns have recently been put into a routine operation. This makes possible to investigate how the ablation characteristics depends on the pulse duration in the XUV spectral region. 1.2-ns pulses of 46.9-nm radiation delivered from a capillary-discharge Ne-like Ar laser, focused by a spherical Sc/Si multilayer-coated mirror were used for an ablation of organic polymers and silicon. Various materials were irradiated with an ellipsoidal-mirror-focused XUV radiation (λ = 86 nm, τ = 30-100 fs) generated by the free-electron laser (FEL) operated at the TESLA Test Facility (TTF1 FEL) in Hamburg. The beam of the Ne-like Zn XUV laser (λ = 21.2 nm, τ < 100 ps) driven by the Prague Asterix Laser System (PALS) was also successfully focused by a spherical Si/Mo multilayer-coated mirror to ablate various materials. Based on the results of the experiment the etch rates for three different pulse durations are compared using the XUV-ABLATOR code to compensate for the wavelength difference. Comparing the values of etch rates calculated for short pulses with the measured ones for ultrashort pulses we may study the influence of pulse duration on the XUV ablation efficiency.