Adaptive Aberration Correction for Laser Processes Improvement

The ultrafast laser processing of three-dimensional structures characterized by highly spatially resolved features is more efficiently realized by implementing adaptive optics. Adaptive optics allow for the correction of optical aberrations, introduced when focusing inside the machined material, by tailoring the focal intensity distribution for the specific texturing task, in a reduced processing time. The aberration corrections by adaptive optics allow for a simplified scan strategy for the selective laser micromachining of transparent materials using depth-independent processing parameters, overcoming the limits related to the previously necessary pulse energy adjustment for different z positions in the material volume. In this paper, recent developments in this field are presented and discussed, mainly focusing on the use of dynamic optical elements—deformable mirrors and liquid crystal spatial light modulators—to obtain a high degree of laser processing control by an in-time correction of optical aberrations on different workpieces and mainly of transparent materials.