Effects of high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser micromachining on the physical and chemical properties of polylactide (PLA).

The effects of femtosecond laser ablation, with 115 fs pulses at 1040 nm wavelength and 57 MHz repetition-rate, on the physical and chemical properties of polylactide (PLA) were studied in air and in water. The surface of the PLA sample ablated by high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser was analysed using field emission scanning electron microscopy, infrared spectroscopy, raman spectroscopy, as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Compared with the experiments in the air at ambient temperature, melting resolidification was negligible for the experiments conducted under water. Neither in air nor under water did oxidation and crystallization process take place in the laser ablated surface. In addition, the intensity of some oxygen related peaks increased for water experiments, probably due to the hydrolysis. Meantime, the chemical shift to higher energies appeared in C1s XPS spectrum of laser processing in water. Interestingly, a large amount of defects were observed after laser processing in air, while no significant change was shown under water experiments. This indicates that thermal and mechanical effects by high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser ablation in water are quite limited, which could be even ignored.