Ultrafast-Laser-Based Figuring and Polishing of Optical Materials

Ultrafast lasers enable non-contact, waste free, precise material removal. Ultrafast laser-based processes have the potential to replace traditional diamond-turning, magnetorheological finishing, and ion-beam finishing techniques, which produce tool wearing and undesired mid-spatial-frequency ripples. Jie Qiao presents a novel laser polishing technique for figuring and finishing optical substrates using ultrafast laser pulses. For this work, she and her team established a two-temperature model to predict and optimize laser parameters for ultrafast laser polishing. Qiao demonstrates single-digit nanometer precision polishing of optical material. The figuring capability and resulting optical surface quality show the viability of ultrafast laser polishing as a novel pathway toward precision finishing of optics.

About the presenter
Jie Qiao, Ph.D., is associate professor in the Carlson Center for Imaging Science at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Rochester, New York. Her research group focuses on laser-based photonics and optics fabrication, such as femtosecond laser polishing, laser writing of photonic devices, and laser welding of optical materials. Prior to joining RIT, she was a laser scientist at the Department-of-Energy-funded Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester. She has worked on technology innovation of various ultrafast laser systems, photonics devices, optical imaging, and metrology systems for two photonic startups and one optics company. She earned her doctorate in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. She is also an associate editor for Optics Express.