ARTICLE IN PRESS

Optics and Lasers in Engineering 44 (2006) 1078–1087

An optimal process of femtosecond laser cutting

of NiTi shape memory alloy for fabrication of
miniature devices
Chengde Lia, Suwas Nikumbb,, Franklin Wongc
a
Department of Applied Physics, School of Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China
b
Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Institute, National Research Council of Canada, 800 Collip, Circle,
London, Ontario, N6G 4X8, Canada
c
Defense Research & Development Canada, Valcartier, Val Belair, Quebec, G3J 1X5, Canada
Received 1 March 2005; received in revised form 1 June 2005; accepted 1 August 2005
Available online 12 October 2005

Abstract

The mechanical properties of NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA) components are sensitive to
thermal influence during laser machining. To make the femtosecond laser cutting of NiTi
material meet the strict fabrication requirements for miniature SMA devices with high
precision, complex patterns and minimal heat affected zone (HAZ) along with high
throughput, we report an optimal process of sideways-movement path planning in this
article. Femtosecond laser processing of NiTi SMA using the fundamental wavelength of
775 nm from a Ti:sapphire laser along with its second and third harmonic irradiations were
systematically investigated. We observed that the main impact of ultrashort laser pulse
induced air breakdown on materials processing was beam widening. The laser beam at
fundamental wavelength suffered less widening than its harmonic wavelengths. Femtosecond
laser machining of metals is still basically a thermal mechanism. High ablation rates at higher
laser fluences causes significant recast formation, while lower fluences resulted in better cutting
quality at the expense of efficiency. The optimal process involving the method of sideways-

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 519 430 7058; fax: +1 519 430 7064.
E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Nikumb).

0143-8166/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright r 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.optlaseng.2005.08.003
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movement path planning enables recast-free high-precision features at higher laser fluences
with better throughput.
Crown Copyright r 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Femtosecond laser; Shape memory alloy; MEMS; Material processing; Microcomponents

1. Introduction

Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)-based miniature devices have

received significant attention in several branches of science and technology
for a variety of applications. Amongst various micro-actuation mechanisms
that include piezoelectric, electrostatic, magnetic, bimetal and shape memory
alloy materials, NiTi shape memory alloys (SMA) are important not only
because they enable large displacements and high actuation force [1], but also
because they are inherently biocompatible [2]. Since the NiTi SMA components are
thermally operated between the transformation temperatures of martensite and
austenite, the mechanical properties of the microfabricated devices are sensitive to
thermal influences. Therefore, heat affect zones and residual stresses have to be
minimized during the laser fabrication process so as to keep their functional
properties unaffected. In recent literature, laser drilling of small holes on thin NiTi
wires [3], patterning on NiTi thin film on silicon substrates [4,5] and cutting of rolled
NiTi sheets [6] have been studied using Q-switched solid state nanosecond laser,
excimer UV lasers and IR femtosecond lasers. However, the process control
necessary to obtain the required precision during processing of these thermally
sensitive materials and its effect on the mechanical behavior is still not fully
understood.
In the past decade, the interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with a variety of
materials has been studied intensively. The advantages of ultrashort pulse lasers over
more conventional nanosecond pulsed lasers in material processing have been
recognized. Since the laser processing of metals using ultrashort pulse duration is still
basically a thermal process, the amount of recast formation during drilling and
cutting processes significantly reduces as the pulse duration decreases, but never
eliminates fully [7]. The heat-affected zones usually extend in microns range [8,9].
The deformation of beam profile caused by ultrashort laser pulse induced
breakdown of air has also been reported [10]. By reducing the laser fluence to a
value slightly above the ablation threshold at the expense of throughput and costs
has resulted in high precision machining without burr formation.
In this article, a systematic investigation of femtosecond laser processing of NiTi
SMA using a fundamental wavelength of 775 nm from Ti:Saphire laser and its
second and third harmonic irradiations is reported. A thermal-influence-free optimal
process was developed to fabricate complex miniature SMA components. In
addition, we demonstrate sideways-movement path planning technique to enable
higher laser fluences for improved throughput processing and achieving recast-free,
high-precision features.
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2. Experimental

A Clark MXR CPA-2010 femtosecond laser system was used in these experiments.
The laser delivered 150 fs pulses with an average power of 1 W at the fundamental
wavelength of 775 nm. An integrated harmonic generator provided an average power
of 250 mW at the second harmonic wavelength of 387 nm and 80 mW at the third
harmonic wavelength of 258 nm. The laser system was operated at a pulse repetition
rate of 1 kHz. The beam of 775 nm wavelength was focused using a microscope
objective (CVI Laser Co.) with focal length of 21 mm and a NA of 0.23. The second
harmonic and third harmonic laser beams were focused with objectives suitable to
the respective wavelengths. Laser beam intensity reaching the sample surface was
controlled with neutral density filters. Beam expanders were used for collimating
purposes. The plasma column at the geometry region was imaged using a MEIJI
EMZ-TR stereomicroscope with color CCD side camera. Laser intensity distribution
behind the focal region was measured using a beam diagnostic system (Big Sky Laser
Technologies, Inc.).
The SMA samples used in our experiment were 220 mm thick, cold rolled sheets
(Special Metals Co.) with a chemical composition of 55.88Ni–44.11Ti. The samples
were mounted on a CAD/CAM-driven motion stage with a specially developed
pumping holder/fixture to avoid surface distortions, striations and unevenness. For
the measurements of the laser material removal rate, the samples were machined
using a multiple-pass laser scanning method. The average removal rate was obtained
as a ratio of material thickness to the number of laser scans required to cut the
samples through fully. Then ablation depth per pulse was calculated. A Hitachi
S3500N SEM was used for characterization of the processing quality.

3. Results and discussion

In general, to obtain high throughput production processing, higher laser fluences

are required. For machining using ultrashort laser pulses with high average power,
the influence of laser-induced air breakdown at the focal region must be taken into
account. In these experiments, the femtosecond laser induced air breakdown plasma
in the focal region was observed at pulse energy 440 mJ at the fundamental
wavelength of 775 nm. For the third harmonic wavelength at 258 nm, very strong
plasma was observed at the pulse energy as low as 10 mJ. Fig. 1 illustrates the plasma
generation and a part of the 3-dimensional beam profile behind the laser focus. It is
obvious that a large amount of beam energy was scattered into the surrounding ring
structure [11]. However, it is important to note that all of the measurements on the
beam profiles were performed at a position far behind the laser focal region. Indeed,
if mask image projection technique were to be used for patterning materials, this
distortion to wavefront would have harmed the process greatly. In the case of
machining with a focused laser beam, the surface of workpiece is placed in focal
region as shown in Fig. 1(b). The intensity distribution in the focal region could be a
non-ring structure.
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Laser focal region

and air plasma

Workpiece

Ring structured beam

profile behind focus
(a)
(b)

Fig. 1. (a) A portion of a 3-D ring structure of fs laser beam profile behind focus. The insertion on the
upper right is the air plasma column causing the beam deformation. (b) Schematic of femtosecond laser
focal region intersecting with workpiece. The intensity distribution in the focal region could be non-ring-
structure.

80

70
258 nm
60
387 nm
Cut Width (µm)

50 775 nm

40

30

20

10

0
1 10 100
Laser Fluence (J/cm2)

Fig. 2. The relation of cutting width with energy density is wavelength dependent.

For a Gaussian beam diameter D of the ablated zone is related to incident laser
fluence F, threshold ablation fluence Fth and beam focus diameter D0 by [7]
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1 F
D ¼ D0 ln . (1)
2 F th
This relationship predicts that machining features much smaller than the laser’s focal
spot size, even down to sub-optical limit, are possible using femtosecond lasers [12].
However, Eq. (1) is not applicable when laser induced air breakdown is present. As
shown in Fig. 2, the cutting width is wavelength dependent. In the case of the third
harmonic wavelength, as the fluence of laser irradiation increases from 3 J/cm2 to
25 J/cm2, the cutting width increased to more than 40%. Widening to the same
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40
25
35 387 nm
258 nm

Depth/Scan (µm/scan)
20
Depth/Scan (µm/scan)

30
10 mm/min 10 mm/min
30 mm/min 25 30 mm/min
15
60 mm/min 60 mm/min
20
100 mm/min 100 mm/min
10 15

10
5
5

0 0
1 10 100 1 10 100
(a) Laser Fluence (J/cm2) (b) Laser Fluence (J/cm2)

60

50 775 nm
Depth/Scan (µm/scan)

40 10 mm/min
30 mm/min
30 60 mm/min
100 mm/min
20

10

0
10 100
(c) Laser Fluence (J/cm2)

Fig. 3. Ablation depth per scan at different scan speeds for three wavelengths: 775, 387 and 258 nm.

percentage, for the second harmonic, a fluence of 40 J/cm2 was required while nearly
70 J/cm2 was needed for the fundamental wavelength. This is due to the fact that UV
photons have higher energy in comparison to the infrared photons for ionizing the
air atoms and producing a plasma column with larger dimensions. This also means
that for higher beam fluences cutting with the fundamental wavelength of the laser
achieves narrower channels compared to the second and the third harmonic
radiation.
Fig. 3 shows the ablation depth per scan at different scan speeds for the three
wavelengths. It is noteworthy that the ablation depth is less than 5 mm/scan at a scan
speed of 60 mm/min or higher up to a laser fluence of 45 J/cm2. These values indicate
that a high degree of the ablation depth control is possible. Fig. 4 shows shallow
tracks cut with a single laser scan at speeds of 10, 30, 60, 100 and 300 mm/min. It is
clear that the faster the scan rate, the smoother the track and the less heat dissipates
to the surrounding material.
Fig. 5 shows the calculated average volume ablation rate in mm3 per pulse using
the data from Fig. 3. It reveals that volume ablation rate, i.e. cutting efficiency is
almost the same for different scan speeds for a given laser fluence. This suggests that,
high speed scanning yields better results compared to scanning at slow speeds and
that scanning speeds must be considered during optimization of the cutting process.
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10 mm/min

30 mm/min

60 mm/min

100 mm/min
40 µm

300 mm/min

Fig. 4. Shallow tracks cut with single laser scan at speed 10, 30, 60, 100 and 300 mm/min from above to
below, respectively. The faster the scan, the smoother is the track and less heat load is in the material.

90
Average Volume Ablation Rate

80 F = 12.7 J/cm2

70
60
(µm3/ pulse)

50
40
30 258 nm
387 nm
20
775 nm
10
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Scan Speed (mm/min)

Fig. 5. Average volume ablation rate for different feed rate at same fluence.

In nanosecond and longer-pulsed laser machining of metals, it is well known that

the energy shielding effect of the plasma plume formed by ejecting materials from the
ablation crater greatly lowers the efficiency of laser energy coupling to the work
piece. Furthermore, machining quality suffers from this plasma plume that causes
prolonged heating and melting effects [13]. These effects can be reduced using UV
wavelengths from nanosecond laser ablation of materials [14]. However, Fig. 6(a)
makes it clear that in the case of femtosecond laser ablation, the volume ablation rate
in mm3 per pulse increases with the laser fluence without saturation. Besides, there is
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600 0.18
Average Volume Ablation Rate

258 nm 0.16 258 nm

500

Average Ablation Depth

0.14 387 nm
387 nm
775 nm
400 775 nm 0.12
(µm3/ pulse)

(µm/pulse)
0.1
300
0.08
200 0.06
0.04
100
0.02
0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
(a) Laser Fluence (J/cm2) (b) Laser Fluence (J/cm2)

Fig. 6. (a) The dependence of volume ablation rate in mm3 per pulse on laser fluence. (b) The dependence
of ablation depth in mm per pulse on laser fluence.

no significant difference regarding ablation efficiency between the three wavelengths.

This fact indicates that the energy shielding effect of the ablated plume is absent in
the case of femtosecond laser machining. It also reveals that the air breakdown
plasma in the focal region is not an energy-consuming phenomenon.
The calculated dependence of ablation depth per pulse on the laser fluence shown
in Fig. 6(b) indicates that the ablation depth is as small as tens of nanometers for
laser fluences lower than 15 J/cm2, meaning that highly precise, recast-free cutting
surfaces are possible. The disadvantage of this low fluence cutting method is low
throughput for production applications. The ablation depth per pulse at harmonic
wavelengths is slightly lower than that at the fundamental wavelength because of the
air plasma widening effect discussed above. Since the laser fluence of the
fundamental wavelength is higher than 25 J/cm2, the average ablation rate is as
high as 0.1 mm/pulse. However, high fluence cutting causes prominent, visible recast
deposites around the edges of the ablation site. Fig. 7 shows a channel cut with laser
spot size of 36 mm at a fluence of 40 J/cm2 and at scanning speed of 60 mm/min.
Rough cut edge morphology and a little recast layer on the edges of the cut is
evident.
In order to make the process of femtosecond laser cutting NiTi materials more
viable and able to meet the precision requirements for machining miniature SMA
devices with a high throughput, we explored a tool path planning technique. The
idea of sideways motion path is schematically shown in Fig. 8. Initially, high fluence
fundamental femtosecond laser beam scans at high speed along the designed tool
path. Then a second scan is deployed by changing the location of the laser spot
sideways by about 1 mm towards one edge with respect to its nominal path position.
This is followed by a third scan once again by changing the location of the laser focal
spot sideways about 1 mm with respect to the nominal path position towards the
opposite edge and completes one routine. Fig. 9 shows a slot with a width of 40 mm
that was cut at a laser fluence of 40 J/cm2 using the new path planning method. The
spot size and the scan speed were unchanged from that used in Fig. 7. Two 1 mm
sideways movements were applied to each side in the routines for this example. It can
be seen that the cutting quality was improved greatly, at the cost of an additional

10% of time required for the cutting process.
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40 µm

Fig. 7. Prominent recast is found around the channel cut with femtosecond laser fluence as high as 40 J/
cm2.

∆Y≤ 1µm (2)

Laser Spot
Sideways Overlap

(3)

X (1)
High Fluence High
Speed Laser Scan

Fig. 8. Sideways-movement path planning to get rid of recast and minimize HAZ for high throughput
femtosecond laser cutting at high fluence.

Sideways-movement path planning takes advantages of both high laser fluence for
increasing the throughput and low laser fluence for improving feature precision. We
attribute the smooth cutting edge to threshold fluence trimming and air plasma
milling. Because the transverse intensity distribution in a femtosecond laser beam
decreases sharply from center outwards, in Steps 2 and 3 of the above process
routine, the outer rim of the laser beam trims the material gently at a fluence just
above the ablation threshold. Secondly, the femtosecond laser induced air plasma
column mills the work piece by removing the recast deposited on the edges of the cut
during the Step 1. The heat-affected regions at the edges can thus be polished away
due to these two effects.
Fig. 10(a) displays a section of a complex pattern of NiTi SMA material,
fabricated with the above optimal femtosecond laser processing method. Clean
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40 µm

Fig. 9. A slot of 40 mm in width cut at laser fluence of 40 J/cm2 with sideways-movement path planning.

Fig. 10. (a) A NiTi SMA self-expanding medical micro-device fabricated with the optimal femtosecond
laser process. (b) An enlarged SEM image of a portion of the component.

polished edges, curves and cuts are evident. Fig. 10(b) shows an enlarged SEM image
(500  ) of a portion of the component. No recast layer was observed.

4. Conclusion

In conclusion, the impact of ultrashort pulses induced air breakdown on

femtosecond laser materials processing is beam widening. The laser beam at a
fundamental wavelength of 775 nm suffers much less widening than at its harmonic
wavelengths of 387 and 258 nm. Femtosecond laser machining of metals is still
basically a thermal mechanism. High ablation rate cutting with high laser fluence
causes significant recast, while lower beam fluences result in high cutting quality at
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C. Li et al. / Optics and Lasers in Engineering 44 (2006) 1078–1087 1087

the cost of efficiency. The optimal process of sideways-movement path planning

enables the use of high laser fluences for better process throughput and high quality,
recast-free, precision features. This optimized process is particularly useful for the
fabrication of precision miniature devices based on NiTi shape memory alloys and
other similar materials.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge M. Islam, Director, Production

Technology Research, for his support, and Hugo Reshef, Craig Dinkel and Mike
Meinert for their technical assistance. This work was partially funded through the
Defence Research & Development Canada Technology Investment Fund under the
project entitled Supersonic Missile Flight Control by Manipulation of the Flow
Structure using Microactuated Surfaces.

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