2019/07/19 by Alessandro Zunino, Zunino, A., Salvatore Surdo +3
Engineering · #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Laser Material Processing Techniques #Optical Coherence Tomography Applications #Optics (physics.optics) #Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1907.08498
openalex publication_date 2019/07/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Laser writing of materials is normally performed by the sequential scanning of a single focused beam across a sample. This process is time-consuming and it can severely limit the throughput of laser systems in key applications such as surgery, microelectronics, or manufacturing. Here we report a parallelization strategy based on ultrasound waves in a liquid to diffract light into multiple beamlets. Adjusting amplitude, frequency, or phase of ultrasound allows tunable multi-focus distributions with sub-microsecond control. When combined with sample translation, the dynamic splitting of light leads to high-throughput laser processing, as demonstrated by locally modifying the morphological and wettability properties of metals, polymers, and ceramics. The results illustrate how acousto-optofluidic systems are universal tools for fast multi-focus generation, with potential impact in fields such as imaging or optical trapping.