Improving industrial laser applications Laser radiation has a variety of applications in modern industry and its scope is increasing in the fields of telecommunication, medicine and projection systems. One of the major uses of laser ablation is micromachining for the creation of gratings and planar waveguides. Industrial Technologies © PhotoDisc The EU's HARP project focused on the application of the shortest, commercially available laser wavelength, 157nm. The 157nm wavelength has a number of associated advantages such as improved precision and higher accuracy, especially in the case of fused silica materials. One of the key applications that HARP researchers concentrated on is the micromachining of optical diffusers used in minimally invasive anticancer therapies. Optical diffusers form part of laser-induced thermotherapy (LITT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT), which specifically target cancer cells and destroy them by thermal and photochemical damage respectively. The aim was to inscribe fused silica optical diffusers using 157nm wavelength lasers for use in LITT and PDT. Silica materials could have been potentially damaged when longer wavelengths were used and it was therefore imperative to achieve micromachining with shorter wavelength lasers. Results demonstrated that diffusers with different emission profiles could be produced using a 157nm wavelength laser. This allows for the development of tailor-made diffusers that cater to the specific topography of each tumour type. Additionally, the technology has successfully been applied for the ablation of Macor ceramic plates, used as optical fibre holders. The combination of these novel applications could expand the potential uses of 157nm wavelength in the field of micromachining. Industries that could benefit from these developments, apart from medicine, are printing, electronics, microprocessors, telecommunications and industrial manufacturing in general.
