300 fs pulsed laser ablation of Al2O3 ceramic and introduction of a predictive model

• The surface topography after pulsed laser ablation of alumina ceramic can be predicted accurately. • Higher ablation efficiency of alumina ceramic is achieved at slower scan speeds. • The authors hope that the results will be useful for the design of laser ablation processes on alumina components. In this study a calculation routine for predicting the ablation topography considering the angle of incidence and the evolution of the ablated surface pulse by pulse is presented and applied. Laser processing of Al 2 O 3 ceramic is studied by the ablation of single craters as well as by macroscopic ablation pockets for a pulse duration of 300 fs at a wavelength of 515 nm. The threshold fluence is determined and compared for different process configurations and it is demonstrated that lower scanspeed leads to a higher removal rate. The accuracy of this method is evaluated in an ablation experiment. The presented method is useful for predicting the surface topography in order to optimize the scanpath or to apply machine learning algorithms.