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Super-stealth dicing of transparent solids with nanometric precision

Nature Photonics (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Laser cutting of semiconductor wafers and transparent dielectrics has become a dominant process in manufacturing industries, encompassing a wide range of applications from display panels to microelectronic chips. Constrained by the diffraction limit of the beam width and the longitudinal extent of the laser focus, a trade-off between the cutting accuracy and the aspect ratio is inherent to conventional laser processing, with the accuracy typically approaching one micrometre and the aspect ratio of the order of 100. Here we propose a method to circumvent this limitation. Our method exploits a mechanism of back-scattering interference crawling in which the incident beam interferes with light that is back-scattered by laser-induced nanoseeds, creating a positive feedback loop. This mechanism ensures both homogenization of longitudinal energy deposition and confinement of lateral subwavelength light during laser–matter interactions. We achieve cutting widths in the range of tens of nanometres with aspect ratios ranging from 1,000 to 10,000. We refer to this technique as ‘super-stealth dicing’ and we validate it through numerical simulations. The technique can be applied to various transparent functional solids, such as glass, laser crystals and ferroelectric and semiconductor materials, thus promising enhanced precision for future advanced laser dicing, patterning and drilling.

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Fig. 1: Mechanism of back-scattering interference crawling.
Fig. 2: Transition from separated nanoseeds to nanoline.
Fig. 3: Self-regulatory formation of nanolines and free-form nanodicing via SSD.
Fig. 4: General applicability of SSD technology.
Fig. 5: Drilling of specific shapes via SSD.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable requests.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under grant numbers 61825502, 61960206003, 61827826 and 62175086, the Key Research and Development Program of Shandong Province 2021CXGC010201 grant and the Natural Science Foundation of Jilin Province 20220101107JC grant. S.J. is grateful for the Australian Research Council DP240103231 grant. Z.-Z.L. would like to thank X.-B. Li, Y.-T. Huang, J.-C. Zhang and F. Yu for their valuable discussions. Z.-Z.L. thanks Z.-W. Ma and H.-L. Zhang for their assistance with the AFM measurements. Z.-Z.L. acknowledges Y. Lei and L.-Y. Zhao for their support in conducting the tests on sapphire waveplates.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Zhen-Ze Li, Hua Fan, Lei Wang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Integrated Optoelectronics, College of Electronic Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, China

    Zhen-Ze Li, Hua Fan, Lei Wang, Xu Zhang, Xin-Jing Zhao, Yan-Hao Yu, Yi-Shi Xu, Qi-Dai Chen & Hong-Bo Sun

  2. State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Zhen-Ze Li, Hua Fan, Yi Wang, Xiao-Jie Wang & Hong-Bo Sun

  3. Optical Sciences Centre and ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM), School of Science, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia

    Saulius Juodkazis

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Contributions

Z.-Z.L., H.F., L.W., S.J. and H.-B.S. conceived the experiments. Z.-Z.L., H.F., X.Z. and X.-J.Z. carried out the experiments. Z.-Z.L. and H.F. performed the numerical simulations. Z.-Z.L., L.W., H.F., Q.-D.C., S.J. and H.-B.S. analysed the data and calculated the results. X.-J.W. measured the fluorescence spectra. H.F., Y.-H.Y., Y.-S.X., Y.W. and Z.-Z.L. developed and improved the fabrication system. L.W., Q.-D.C., S.J. and H.-B.S. supervised the whole project. Z.-Z.L. and H.-B.S. wrote the initial draught, and all authors contributed to the final paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Lei Wang, Saulius Juodkazis, Qi-Dai Chen or Hong-Bo Sun.

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Nature Photonics thanks Fatih Ilday and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–65, Sections 1–12, Tables 1–7 and refs. 1–73.

Supplementary Video 1

Schematic of the back-scattering interference crawling mechanism.

Supplementary Video 2

Schematic of polarization-controlled nanodicing via SSD.

Supplementary Video 3

Theoretical calculation of normalized optical intensity during back-scattering interference crawling.

Supplementary Video 4

Beam deflection of 90° achieved by total reflection from the bevelled edge of a YAG right-angle prism.

Supplementary Video 5

Optical microscope observation of a laser-cut fused silica microrod.

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Li, ZZ., Fan, H., Wang, L. et al. Super-stealth dicing of transparent solids with nanometric precision. Nat. Photon. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-024-01437-8

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