Industrial Applications Of Ultrafast Lasers

This book describes the applications of ultrafast laser technology to studies of materials and processes relevant to industry today, including ultrafast laser ablation where fundamental studies led to the development of the world's first femtosecond photomask repair tool. This tool has been successfully employed by a number of semiconductor manufacturing companies worldwide to repair photomask defects, saving hundreds of millions in production costs. Photoelectron spectroscopy utilizing femtosecond pulses of soft and hard coherent X-ray pulses has been used to study ultrafast electron dynamics in materials. Pump/probe photoelectron spectroscopic techniques have been developed to study technologically relevant metal-oxide-semiconductor structures providing key device information such as effective work functions, semiconductor band bending and defect-related charging in technologically important oxides. Additional applications to thin film photovoltaics and organic light emitting materials are covered as well. An overview of different types of ultrafast lasers relevant to industrial uses will be given followed by a basic discussion of the physics and material science of their application.