Micro Ablation of Optical Fibers Using Vacuum Ultraviolet Laser

157nm vacuum ultraviolet laser was considered as one of promising tools for next-generation lithography or precision micro-ablation. In this study, a multi-functional micro-ablation system with 157 nm vacuum ultraviolet laser was conducted. Some laser ablation experiments were performed for silica glasses and optical fibers. For the silica glasses, the average ablation rate of the 157nm laser could reach to 4μm/s. The material removal is one-photon-absorption process in the case of 157nm VUV laser. Experiments also show that, the 157nm laser ablation has wonderful possibilities for fabricating precision 3D micro-structures in the optical fibers.