Nanostructure of Medical and Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) Devices Using Ultrafast Lasers and Liquid Optics

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The objective of this research is to combine ultrafast lasers and nonlinear optics to enable precise fabrication of structural materials at the nanoscale, with little or no collateral thermal damage. Nanofabrication that takes advantage of emerging ultrafast laser technology has potential applications in medical and MEMS device manufacturing, which includes nanostructuring of angioplasty catheters, removal of sacrificial layers in MEMS, and fabrication of Rockwell hardness diamond indenters. Research into the transmission of the short-pulsed beam through nonlinear optics will investigate the self-focusing capabilities that can lead to extremely non-concial small-sized beams that are expected to be as energetic as the original beam. Fundamental understanding of the interaction of this beam with structural materials will allow controlled ablation of material at the nanometer scale. Nanometric cutting is expected to be facilitated by the resultant moving foci along the optical axis from the pulsed beam, offering the possibility of creating taper-free features by ablating material within a nanometer focal region. The objective is to obtain precise fabrication capabilities with little or no collateral thermal damage by limiting heat conduction or mass flow by the scale of the ablation.This project has the potential to extend the fabrication technology through the microscale to the mesoscale and will be performed in collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Clark-MXR, Inc, pioneers of the ultrafast laser technology for microfabrication. The project will offer exciting opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to learn and integrate issues related to precision manufacturing and laser physics. The research instrumentation will facilitate new experimental capabilities not currently available at the university.