Fluence ablation threshold dependence on tin impurities in commercial soda-lime glass

Appl Opt. 2014 Aug 20;53(24):5416-20. doi: 10.1364/AO.53.005416.

Abstract

In this paper, we study the reduction in the fluence ablation threshold induced by tin impurities incorporated in float soda-lime glass during the fabrication process. The laser system used in the experiments was a Nd:YVO4 laser operating at 1064 nm with a pulse duration of 20 ns. The fluence ablation thresholds found were 112 J/cm2 for the tin side and 920 J/cm2 for the tin-free side, which means a reduction of nearly 1 order of magnitude. The fluence ablation threshold reduction permits the manufacturing of narrower grooves with small level of roughness, obtaining quality elements in low-cost soda-lime substrates.