The new major instrumentation is a LightFab 3D Printer M with IR laser (1030 nm). It can be used to create 3D structures in glass substrates using selective laser-induced etching (SLE). The process is two-step: First, the material is locally illuminated with a femtosecond laser, thus increasing the etchability of the material there. Then, in a second step, the illuminated structures are removed with a potassium hydroxide solution. A variety of materials, including fused silica, sapphire, borosilicate glass, aluminosilicate glass, quartz and diamond, can be processed with a precision of approximately 1 µm. The system can additionally and in combination realize laser welding, laser ablation and 2-photon polymerization.
The new SLE facility will be used to fabricate quantum chips for ion trap-based quantum computers. It is funded and acquired by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the collaborative project MIQRO ("Scalable Quantum Computer with High Frequency Controlled Stored Ions"). It comes through the working group of Prof. Dr. Christian Ospelkaus (Institute of Quantum Optics). The equipment description and contact person of the SLE facility are listed on the LNQE website at Technology in the LNQE Research Building.
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