IE 570 Midterm part 2 Chandra Chittineni (PUID:0032014640)

A) Read the chapter Energy Field Interactions in Hybrid Laser/Nonlaser

Manufacturing Processes.

1. For each of the four processes (e.g. Abrasive Laser Machining, Laser-Assisted
Flame Coating)

1) Please describe what are the energy fields involved and how do hybrid energy
fields interact with materials in these two hybrid manufacturing processes.

Ans:

Abrasive Laser Machining:

Abrasive Laser Machining addresses the need for effective melt removal in laser
macro-milling and macro-turning processes. By combining grid blasting with laser
surface melting in this hybrid machining process, it is clearly seen that material
removal is effective and surface finish is good.

In this hybrid manufacturing process, laser beam is used as a thermal energy

source for machining the groove in materials and grid blasting is used as an
effective means of mechanical material removal for achieving a good surface
finish.

This interaction of the two energy sources is important in material removal. The
shape of the machined groove is dependent on the melt pool, that is in turn
dependent on the laser parameters like beam geometry and intensity, interaction
of the beam, etc.

The abrasive particle steams need to be delivered on the material at certain angles
to achieve a successful machining. This angle is dependent on the geometry of
the melt pool created while machining the groove with the laser beam.
 This quick removal of the molten material while the laser works on machining,
significantly improves the material removal rate, achieves an improved surface
finish, and also reduces thermal distortion.

Laser-Assisted Flame Coating:

An illustration of a hybrid laser/flame spray coating process.

In Laser-Assisted Flame Coating, the laser-assisted process results in a crack-

free, non-porous, fully dense coating with a solidification structure, while the flame
coating spray itself results in a weakly bonded, porous coating.

When laser coating is used alone, it results in fully dense coating and fusion
bonding between the coating and the material. When flame coating is used alone,
it results in highly porous coatings without fusion bonding. So, when these two
processes are used in combination, their advantages are enhanced.

This interaction of the two energy fields – laser and flame, significantly increases
the temperature of the material that is coming in contact with the substrate leading
to a significant decrease in the thermal gradient that is responsible for cracks in
coatings.

Therefore, this hybrid process results in coatings of ceramics that is free from the
typical problems associated with it like cracking and low deposition rate, while also
achieving high density in coatings.

2) What advantages these two hybrid manufacturing system address provide?

 Ans:

Advantages of Abrasive Laser Machining

1. The key advantage of the hybrid process is the use of the laser
beam as a thermal energy source and grit blasting as the
mechanical material removal means by momentum transfer.
2. The use of laser for machining the groove while using grid blasting
overcomes the key challenge of effective molten material removal
as it generates.
3. The fast action of grid blasting to remove the molten material also
results in an improved surface finish.
4. In addition to the improved surface finish, the fast action also
results in reduced thermal distortion.

Advantages of Laser-assisted flame coating:

1. For laser-assisted flame coating, both the energies – laser and flame
when used alone have their own advantages and disadvantages.
2. With only laser, there is high density and fusion bonding. With just flame,
there is high porosity and no fusion bonding with. When these two are
combined, their singular advantages are enhanced and disadvantages
are overcome.
3. The coatings of ceramics machined with Laser-assisted flame coating
are fully dense.
4. Absence of cracks in the ceramics.
5. There is considerably high surface deposition rates.

2. For Laser-Activated Chemical Machining, Water-Assisted Laser Machining.

1) Discuss the how the various energy sources interact with the target materials
to achieve the machining.

Ans:

Laser-Activated Chemical Machining:

 In Laser-Activated Chemical machining, short pulse laser beam is used
to heat a material work piece that is immersed in a salt solution.

This high temperature also heats up the surrounding salt solution liquid
causing chemical erosion to occur at a higher rate that at room
temperature.

In this process, the two energies – thermal and chemical interact with
each other to form additional energy that is added to the normal
chemical erosion. This causes the local energy concentrated in the
system to be dissipated across reducing the effectiveness between the
laser pulses and overcoming the problem of heat-affected zones in
machining while maintaining high material removal rates.

This hybrid process also reduces the machining time because of the
interaction between heat and the salt solution.

Water-Assisted Laser Machining:

Fig. shows methods for providing water in the working zone during laser etching
 (a) convection (b) bubble motion

This hybrid process is particularly used in material machining like laser

removal of partially sintered Ti-alloys, where water is an important
component in the removal of material.

The interaction of the two energy fields – thermal from laser beam and
mechanical from the water vapor pressure results in effective material
removal in machining.

In this process, as the particle surface temperature rises because of the

thermal energy of the laser beam, the temperature of water around it
rapidly increases and the water that is close to the surface in contact
with the laser beam starts boiling.

This creates a pressure from the water vapor that easily dislodges the
weakly bonded metallic particles without melting it.

2) What are the advantages of these hybrid processes over laser machining alone?

Ans:

Advantages of Laser-Activated Chemical machining:

When laser is used alone, short pulses laser beams are required to
eliminate the heat-affected zones. But the short pulse laser beams result in
a low material removal rate. The advantage in combining the two forms of
energy – thermal and chemical is the resultant machining with accelerated
material removal while also eliminating the heat-affected zones.

Advantages of Water-Activate Laser Machining:

When laser is used alone, it results in only melting of the material. The use
of water along with laser adds the benefit of easily removing the material
 without melting because of the pressure from the water vapor as the
temperature rises because of the laser beam.

B) Read the paper on “Hybrid Manufacturing in Micro/Nano Scale: A Review” and

relevance papers in this review.

1. For the femtosecond laser assisted solution deposition technique in the

figure, describe the process (materials, energy source, and working
environment, and energy-materials interaction), discuss what are the
geometry and size resolution can this process achieve. Other than silver
patterns, what other materials could be also patterned by this technique.
(read reference [73] in the paper if needed).

Ans:

FLSNS Process: Is a novel digital, low-temperature, high-resolution, direct

metal patterning method wherein solution-deposited metal NPs were
sintered by applying a femtosecond laser for the fabrication of nanoscale
electronics.

Arbitrary silver patterns are fabricated by the motion control of piezo driven
stages and while the laser focus is fixed at the same position. As a
femtosecond laser beam source, a mode-locked Ti-sapphire laser having a
wavelength of 780 nm with ultrashort pulse duration of less than 100 fs and
repetition rate of 80 MHz was used. A λ/2 plate and a polarizing beam
splitter were used to accurately control the laser power. A galvano-shutter
for the expeditious control of the on/off state of the laser beam was operated
at a maximum frequency of 1.0 kHz. The laser beam was tightly focused by
an oil immersion objective lens (Olympus, 100x magnification, a numerical
aperture of 1.3). The prepared Ag NP film on a substrate was fixed by a jig
and translated by computer controlled 3-axis piezoelectric stages. A high
magnification charge-coupled device (CCD) camera and a LED coaxial
illuminator were used for the adjustment of the focused laser beam and for
real-time process monitoring.
First, an ultrashort pulse from a femtosecond laser and the low thermal
conductivity of the NPs can suppress the thermal diffusion during the
FLSNS process. The NP laser sintering process is a photothermal process.
The focused laser spot size and thermal diffusion from the laser spot
determine the resolution of the final metal structure. The NP thermal
conductivity is very low due to the presence of the large interface that
induces phonon reflection or phonon scattering. Due to the combined effect
of the ultrashort pulses and the very low thermal conductivity of NPs, the
selective femtosecond laser sintering area can be limited to the laser focal
spot, and thermal diffusion effects can be suppressed to enable the
fabrication of submicrometer-sized patterns. Second, strong absorption of
the nanomaterial induced by femtosecond laser pulses can increase the
process resolution beyond the light diffraction limit. In addition, enhanced
electric fields between NPs could contribute to a more efficient laser energy
deposition mechanism. The melting temperature drop in Ag NPs can reduce
the required laser energy and further contribute to the resolution
enhancement. These combined effects contribute to the high-resolution
submicrometer, subwavelength scale metal patterns made from solution-
deposited metal NPs using a femtosecond laser to overcome the light
diffraction limit.

Direct femtosecond laser sintering of solution-deposited metal

nanoparticles has the advantage that it is simple, direct, and high- resolution
patterning can be used, unlike vacuum deposition and MEMS. This method
is expected to be a potential alternative to the conventional electron beam
lithography method for arbitrary nanoscale direct patterning in single-step,
low-temperature, and non-vacuum environments.

Geometry and size resolution: The shape and resolution of the metal
patterns fabricated by the FLSNS process are dependent on various
fabrication conditions, including the position of the laser beam focus, the
laser beam intensity, and the scanning speed. As the laser beam is
defocused from the Ag NP film on a substrate, the surface roughness of the
micrometal lines fabricated by the FLSNS process is increased. When the
Ag NP film on a substrate is at the best focus position, high laser intensity
above the threshold (3 × 1010 W m−2) could induce full NP melting, thus
smooth metal lines could be fabricated. When the laser beam is slightly
defocused from the Ag NP film on a substrate, nanoporous structures or big
aggregated NPs (≈50 to 100 nm) are generated on the laser-processed
metal microstructured surface or near the edges of the metal lines where
the laser beam intensity was not enough to fully melt the NPs. The
resolution of the metal patterns fabricated by the FLSNS process is also
affected by the laser beam scanning speed. Uniform metal lines with a
minimum width of 380 nm could be fabricated from the 780 nm wavelength
femtosecond laser at 400 μm s−1 and 150 mW. A 50 nm to 10 μm thick Ag
micro/nano electrode could be successfully generated. The maximum
 thickness was limited by the laser penetration depth for the current
wavelength. However, thicker Ag conductor patterns could be fabricated by
repeating the current processes on the same spot.

Other Materials: ZnO, Graphene, Zinc microparticles, Cu nanoparticles,

Cu50Zr50, NiO/Cr mixed nanoparticles, Gold nanoparticles, Porous-
Carbon/Silver Nanocomposite, Gallium-Indium alloy, Magnesia with
nanoparticles of iron oxide and aluminum oxide, NiO nanoparticle,
Palladium nanostructures, TiO2, TiO are some of the other materials that
can be patterned by this technique.

2. In the laser-FIB machining system in the figure, describe the advantages of

this hybrid machining system over the laser machining and FIB machining
respectively.

Ans:

Laser-FIB Machining System:

The laser-FIB machining system shown in the above figure is suitable for
fabricating ultra-fine surfaces for application including optical devices and
micro-optical lenses. The shape machining is done before the final
machining step. The machine consists of different types of lasers and a
FIB with an atomic force microscope. This system can fabricate
decamicrometer area by the laser and submicrometer area by FIB at one
chuck.

Advantages:

1. Decrease in surface roughness: When A micro-optical lens press

mold die of a microlens array (10*10) was fabricated in a glasslike
carbon with a femtosecond laser, a diameter of 3.2 μm and depth
of 0.43 μm were obtained. However, the surface roughness is
 more than 0.5 μm. When the surface was later finished with a FIB,
the surface roughness obtained was less than 0.05 μm. This
clearly shows that the hybrid system comprising of both laser and
FIB decreased the surface roughness by approximately 1000%.
2. Processing time: The time taken for processing is significantly
reduced for the hybrid system when compared to either laser or FIB
individually.
3. Enhanced precision: With the laser and FIB hybrid machining
system, the precision while machining considerably higher.
4. Accuracy: The machining process is more accurate while using
both laser and FIB
5. Efficiency: The overall efficiency of the laser-FIB machining
system is greater than the individual efficiency of each laser system
and FIB system.

3. In the vibration assisted laser machining system in the figure, describe the
mechanism of the machining process, and the advantages of this hybrid
machining system over the laser machining alone.

Ans:

Need for vibration assisted laser machining systems:

One of the major drawbacks of femtosecond laser machining is that the side
wall of the machined surface and the adjacent machined areas are usually
covered with resolidified and redeposited material particles as a result of
high energy laser beam interactions with the substrate material.
Nanostructures like nano-sized droplets and nano-joining have also been
generated through plume deposition of femtosecond pulsed laser ablated
material.

Vibration assisted laser machining:

Vibration is another assistive process used in hybrid manufacturing. The

process involves improving the quality of laser machined surfaces by
vibrating the optical objective lens with a frequency (of 500 Hz) and various
displacements (0–16.5 μm) during femtosecond laser machining process.
 Experimental Setup and Mechanism:

The vibration assisted femtosecond laser machining system consists

of vibrator, a PZT amplifier, function generator, and oscilloscope.
The amplitude and frequency of the vibrator is calibrated using an
oscilloscope. To introduce vibration to the femtosecond laser
machining, a vibrator is installed on the objective lens. The energy of
the incident beam irradiating the substrate is controlled using neutral
density (ND) filters inserted between the laser and the focusing
objective lens. The machined structures are observed from a
direction perpendicular to the optical axis using an optical
microscope with a CCD camera connected to a computer. To
produce nanostructures, a linearly polarized femtosecond laser
beam is weakly focused onto the sample surface at the normal
incident. A train of laser pulses is used to irradiate the sample and
the number of the pulses is controlled by an electromechanical
shutter.

Advantages:

1. A significant reduction in the surface roughness of the machined

workpiece was reported.
2. Aspect ratio got using rate vibration assist laser machining are better,
compare to laser machining without vibration assist.
3. The wall surface finish of the machined structures in Micro/Nano
machining using the vibration assisted laser machining is improved
compared to laser machining without vibration assistance
4. Increased potential of utilizing a femtosecond laser for controlling the
surface roughness and machined depth in fabrication work in various
fields such as semiconductors, displays, the bio-medical industry, and
so on.
C) In the magnetic field assisted laser induced dry etching process in the figure
above. Briefly describe how this machining process works (materials, energy,
working media and how the energy interact with materials). Describe the
uniqueness of this process over the traditional dry etching technique (geometry,
materials and cost). Read this paper if needed. x
Reference: N. R. Kadasala, M. Saei, G.J. Cheng, A. Wei, "Dry Etching with
Nanoparticles: Formation of High Aspect-Ratio Pores and Channels Using Magnetic
Gold Nanoclusters ", Advanced Materials (2017), 1703091. DOI:
10.1002/adma.201703091

Ans:

Machining Process:

Methods for generating nanopores in substrates typically involve one or more wet-
etching steps. Magnetic Field assisted laser induced dry etching process is a
fundamentally different approach to produce nanopores in sheet substrates under
dry, ambient conditions, using nanosecond- pulsed laser irradiation and magnetic
gold nanoclusters (MGNCs) as the etching agents is. This method is a potentially
scalable method for producing high-aspect ratio pores and channels into
substrates under dry, ambient conditions using nanoparticles (NPs) as etching
agents, driven by a nanosecond-pulsed laser and accelerated by a magnetic field
gradient. The etchants are based on magnetic gold nanoclusters (MGNCs), which
have sufficient moment to respond to field gradients produced by a hard magnet.
The nanopores are generated in substrates with a wide range of thermochemical
properties, ranging from polyvinyldifluoride (PVDF) to glass. Pore formation is
driven in part by photothermal effects produced by absorbed laser pulses and can
be further assisted by magnetomotive forces generated by a coaxial magnetic field,
enabling the production of nanopores and channels on the second to minute
timescale. MGNC-based dry etching is driven by both optical and magnetic forces.
For example, in the absence of a magnetic field, pulsed laser irradiation of MGNC-
coated PET films for 40 s yields nanopores that terminate halfway into the
substrate. However, the etching is not as efficient without a coaxial magnetic field
gradient. The magnetomotive force is five orders of magnitude stronger than
gravity, and sufficient to drive MGNCs through a viscous fluid. In this process,
Thermoplastic films (50–75 μm thickness) are coated with MGNCs then exposed
to laser pulses with a coaxial magnetic field gradient, resulting in high-aspect ratio
channels with tapered cross sections as characterized by confocal fluorescence
tomography. The dry-etching process is applicable to a wide variety of substrates
ranging from fluoropolymers to borosilicate glass, with etch rates in excess of 1 μm
s–1. Finite-element modeling suggests that the absorption of laser pulses by
MGNCs can produce temperature spikes of nearly 1000 °C, which is sufficient for
generating photoacoustic responses that can drive particles into the medium,
guided by magnetomotive force.

Uniqueness:

While most dry-etch processes require masking to provide control over lateral
features, the production of high-aspect ratio nanopores in thermoplastic
membranes (reactive ion-track etching) is an exception. This two-step process
involves bombarding the substrate with heavy-element ions creating tracks 1–2
nm in diameter, followed by solution etching under controlled conditions to
produce uniform channels with nanometer to sub-micrometer widths. However,
the dry- and wet-etching steps operate on different timescales with the latter
taking up to several hours, preventing their integration into a continuous mode of
manufacturing. Indeed, nearly all methods of generating nanoporous membranes
require a wet-etching step, including the anodization of aluminum substrates,
chemoselective etching of self-assembled block copolymer films, self-
organization of pores in cast polymer films under dissipative conditions, and the
etching of surface defects introduced by nanoimprint lithography. Magnetic Field
assisted laser induced dry etching process is a one-step method of fabricating
nanoporous membranes that can be used for additive manufacturing, with
seamless integration into a continuous process. This process has high etch
rates, low collateral damage and a precise dimensional control which are key
parameters that affect production efficiency and overhead costs. Therefor the
magnetic field assisted laser induced dry etching process helps reduce the
overall cost of machining and at the same time has a higher efficiency compared
to other dry etching processes.