Journal of Advanced Research 30 (2021) 39–51

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Journal of Advanced Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jare

Study on machining characteristics of magnetically controlled laser

induced plasma micro-machining single-crystal silicon
Yanming Zhang a,b, Zhen Zhang c,d,⇑, Yi Zhang c, Denghua Liu c, Jie Wu c, Yu Huang a, Guojun Zhang a,d
a
State Key Lab of Digital Manufacturing Equipment & Technology, School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan,
Hubei 430074, PR China
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
c
School of Aerospace Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Wuhan, Hubei 430074, PR China
d
Guangdong HUST Industrial Technology Research Institute, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing Equipment, Dongguan 523808, PR China

g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Introduction: Laser induced plasma micro-machining (LIPMM) has proved its superiority in micro-
Received 8 June 2020 machining of hard and brittle materials due to less thermal defects, smaller heat affected zone and larger
Revised 9 December 2020 aspect ratio compared to conventional laser ablation.
Accepted 10 December 2020
Objectives: In order to improve characteristics and stability of induced plasma, this paper proposed mag-
Available online 15 December 2020
netically controlled LIPMM (MC-LIPMM) to achieve a good performance of processing single-crystal sil-
icon which is widely used in solid state electronics and infrared optical applications.
Keywords:
Methods: A comprehensive study on surface integrity and geometrical shape was conducted based on the
Laser induced plasma micro-machining
(LIPMM)
experimental method. Firstly, the mechanism of MC-LIPMM including laser-plasma, laser-materials
Surface integrity interactions and transport effects was theoretically analyzed. Then a series of experiments was conducted
Geometrical shape
Bubble behavior
Magnetic field assisted technique
Single-crystal silicon

Peer review under responsibility of Cairo University.

⇑ Corresponding author at: School of Aerospace Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Wuhan, Hubei 430074, PR China.
E-mail address: jameszhang198808@gmail.com (Z. Zhang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jare.2020.12.005
2090-1232/Ó 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Cairo University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Y. Zhang, Z. Zhang, Y. Zhang et al. Journal of Advanced Research 30 (2021) 39–51

to completely investigate the effect of magnetic field intensity, pulse repetition frequency, and bubble
behavior on surface integrity and geometrical shape of micro channels.
Results: It revealed that magnetic field contributed to maximum reduction of 12.64% for heat affected
zone and 62.57% for width while maximum increase of 26.23% for depth and 90.26% for aspect ratio.
Conclusion: This research confirms that MC-LIPMM can improve the machining characteristics of silicon
materials and cavitation bubbles shows an apparently negative impact on the surface morphology.
Ó 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Cairo University. This is an open access article
under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Introduction defects, micro-cracks, recast layer and heat affect area, which
severely influenced surface integrity and its performance of fabri-
Single-crystal silicon is the key essential material of semicon- cating micro/nano-structures.
ductor, photoelectrical sensor, and infrared optics with excellent In order to increase the material removal rate (MRR) and further
electrical and mechanical properties, and has been widely used reduce thermal damage in the ultrashort-pulse laser micro
in solid state electronics, MEMS, photovoltaic power, and infrared machining, Pallav and Ehmann [12] first proposed laser induced
optical technologies for aerospace, automobile, telecommunica- plasma micro machining(LIPMM) technique using induced plasma
tion, biomedical applications [1]. However, single-crystal silicon instead of laser pulse to physically interact with materials, which
shows strongly hard and brittle characteristics with a high degree shows enormous potential for multi-materials processing, complex
of hardness (12 –14 GPa) but a low level of fracture toughness (~1 features and high precision micro-structure processing. The
MPa
m1/2), which lead to low machining efficiency, high cost, poor plasma induced by ultrashort-pulse laser located at the focal spot
machining performance, and high breakage rates during the micro of laser beam inside a transparent dielectric medium. The material
scale material removal process [2]. Particularly, Goel et al. [3] and removal mechanism of LIPMM is the combined results of thermal
Chen et al. [4] pointed out that conventional mechanical machin- vaporization by plasma-material interaction due to thermal energy
ing technologies like turning, milling or grinding are restricted to in the plasma, and mechanical erosion by shock waves and cavita-
hardness and brittleness of single-crystal silicon. These conven- tion due to mechanical energy in the plasma. Thus geometrical
tional macro/micro-machining processes exist considerable cut- shape and intensity of plasma plume could significantly affect
ting force leading to severe tool wear and surface damage machining efficiency, the geometric characteristics of micro-
(micro-cracks), as well as low machining accuracy and efficiency, structures, and their surface integrity, and these characteristics of
which requires new machining technologies to solve these plasma plume should be enhanced in some way.
drawbacks and achieve high machining quality of single-crystal Some researches revealed that magnetic field assisted technol-
silicon. ogy could confine the induced plasma and regulate its geometric
On the contrary, non-conventional physical machining tech- features via controlling the motion of charge particles in the
nologies, like electrical discharge machining (EDM) [5] and laser plasma [13–14]. Pisarczyk et al [15] implemented external mag-
machining [6], could provide great potential and superiority to netic field to generate an elongated plasma column with higher
no-contact machining of the difficult to melt materials with com- electron density, and VanZeeland et al. [16] experimentally studied
plex curved surfaces and 3D shapes via melting and vaporization. the expansion of an ambient magnetized plasma induced by a
Pallav et al. [7] conducted a comparative study on laser microma- dense laser. Begimkulov et al. [17] conducted numerical and exper-
chining and micro-EDM. It can be found that laser micromachining imental analysis on the evolution of laser induced plasma in the
was probably a better choice for high-precision process of single- transverse magnetic field and revealed that the radial dimension
crystal silicon due to its no limitation of material conductivity of the plasma can be enhanced. Farrokhi et al. [18,19] also pointed
and high machining efficiency. However, as Cheng et al. [8] found, out that a constant axial magnetic field could enhance quality and
thermal damage and stress variations induced by laser ablation speed of nanosecond-pulse laser ablation of silicon due to the con-
process results in bad surface integrity with crystalline- finement of laser-induced plasma by the magnetic field and speci-
amorphous transformations, intensive thermal-crack propagation, fic propagation effects in the magnetized plasma. Therefore, from
thick recast layer, and large heat affected zone. Thus, it is very above researchers’ work, external magnetic field assisted method
important to improve laser ablation process and avoid excessive can effectively regulate the geometric shape, size and fluence of
thermal concentration on the machined surface to reduce thermal induced plasma by pulsed laser, which could contribute to improve
stress and damages. Tangwarodomnukun, et al. [9] put laser micro- machining performance including surface integrity and machining
machining of silicon in ice layer to control the excessive heat con- efficiency of LIPMM process through regulating induced plasma.
ducting toward the silicon substrate and also to impede the Recently, some researchers have begun to explore the effect of
removed debris depositing on the machined surface. But compared magnetic fields on machining characteristics in LIPMM. Saxena
with ultrashort-pulse lasers, they adopted nanosecond pulsed et al. [20] applied an external unidirectional magnetic field to
lasers to conduct micro machining process, which still produced LIPMM, which increased plasma energy by 70% and depth of
large amount of heat to result in thick recast layer. Since thermal micro-structure by 50% in a magnetic field of 5400 Gauss. Tang
damage induced by long-pulse lasers restricts the maximum et al. [21] implemented repulsive magnetic field–assisted laser-
machining accuracy and affects surface quality, ultrashort-pulse induced plasma micromachining of single crystal silicon to achieve
lasers, like picosecond/femtosecond-pulse lasers, could relieve this a high-quality smooth and narrow microgroove without thermal
thermal damage to some extent and fabricate high-precision struc- defects. Although surface quality and geometrical shape of
tures in micro/nano scales. Soltani et al. [10] and Fang et al. [11] machined single crystal silicon are critical to characteristics of
presented the machining surface integrity of picosecond pulsed micro-structure, few researches focused on comprehensively
laser micromachining of silicon nitride and silicon wafer including studying the surface integrity of magnetically controlled laser-
surface topography, microstructure, width of thermal damages, induced plasma micro-machining (MC-LIPMM). Particularly, the
heat-affected zone (HAZ) and residual stress of machined surface. synesthetic effects of bubble behavior generated by mechanical
But ultrashort-pulse laser can’t completely eliminate thermal energy of plasma and erosion generated by thermal energy of

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Y. Zhang, Z. Zhang, Y. Zhang et al. Journal of Advanced Research 30 (2021) 39–51

plasma on the surface integrity should be taken into where m is mass of a charged plasma particle; q is the particle
considerations. charge; and B is magnetic field intensity. As for the heavy mass part
Based on above research problems, this article comprehensively in LIP, the shortest cyclotron period of 12.06 ls is attributed to a
investigates machining characteristics of magnetic field assisted single-charged ion of Si (m = 28.085 atomic units of mass [23];
laser induced plasma micro-machining single-crystal silicon. Sec- xC = 0.521  106 rad/s at B = 0.1 T). Considering a pulse duration
tion 2 presents the principle of plasma behavior in the presence of 10 ps, the charged plasma particle obtains a completely negligi-
of magnetic fields and improvement mechanism of MC-LIPMM of ble angular travel motion of 0.521  10-6 rad. This means that the
single-crystal silicon. The experimental procedures including confinement effects of heavy-mass magnetic field assisted LIP part
setup, design and measurement method are described in Section 3. can be completely neglected during direct picosecond pulsed laser
Experimental results and discussions about the effects of magnetic action and early stages of machining, but major confinement effects
field and pulse repetition frequency on surface integrity and micro- would gradually happen at the stages of LIP machining, cooling and
groove shape are conducted in Section 4. Conclusions are drawn in deposition.
Section 5. In terms of the Appleton formula for the dielectric response of a
magnetized plasma, Farrokhi [18] found that modification of the
Background LIP optical response could be nearly neglected because the cyclo-
tron frequencies of heavy-mass LIP components and electrons are
Laser induced plasma generation all far less than the pulsed laser frequency (its order about 104).
This means that line pulse laser propagates through the induced
The generation of plasma is due to the optical breakdown mech- plasma with little influence under the external magnetic field.
anisms when the laser peak power density exceeds a threshold LIP expansion by magnetic field is characterized based on the
value in a dielectric as shown in Fig. 1(a), thus the plasma is the base- Larmor radius of the LIP particles as following equation [18].
ment and key to explore the machining mechanism of MF-LIPMM.  pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
mv 3kB mT BOIL  3kB T BOIL
The evolution equation of free electrons in a dielectric can be RL ¼ ¼ ;v ¼ ð3Þ
calculated by [22]: qB qB m


dq dq where kB is the Boltzmann constant; v is average particle speed.
¼ þ gcasc q  nrec q2 ð1Þ When TBOIL = 3558 K, the average speed of plasma particles is
dt dt mp
1.77  103 m/s, and the Larmor radius is 2.69 mm for a single
where (dq/dt)mp denotes multiphoton ionization, gcascq denotes cas- charged silicon ion [23]. Since compared with the average speed of
cade ionization, and grecq2 denotes recombination. It can be found plasma particles the speed of the induced plasma front can amount
from Eq. (1) that the intensity and shape of plasma is determined to 105 m/s, which is faster by two orders of magnitude, plasma par-
by the free electrons. ticles could expand further from the crater during the plasma cool-
To show the generation process of laser induced plasma intu- ing and debris recasting. Additionally, the thermal radiation of LIP
itively, a Nd-YVO4 laser (Lumera Lasers Inc.) and an ultra-fast can make the machining crater depth increased by 10%-20%.
gated camera (Model: LaVision PicoStar HR 12) were applied to
produce and record the diffusion of plasma by experimental Laser-materials interaction and transport effects under magnetic field
method as displayed in Fig. 2(a). The repetition frequency of pulse The plasma intensity can be further enhanced by the change of
laser is 10 kHz, and the resolution of camera is 1 K. From Fig. 2(a), it material optical properties of silicon under magnetic field, which
can be obtained that the plasma induced by laser was centered on includes the promotion and the absorption of light energy by free
the laser focus and the plasma continued to expand when the pulse electrons [24]. This laser-materials interaction can also change the
laser existed, and dissipated as the laser disappeared. The plasma transport effects in terms of reflectivity. Magneto-absorption for
began to appear when the scanning phase delay time was inter-band transitions is another phenomenon when machining
15.756 ns, and with the increase of time, the size and fluence (sig- silicon in MF-LIPMM, which can contribute to the resonant inter-
nal count) of plasma increased firstly until reaching a maximum at band transitions and then increases the absorption of light in the
16.208 ns. After that, the plasma starts to dissipate until 16.596 ns, presence of magnetic field.
and the whole plasma duration is 0.84 ns. To verify above theoretical analysis, the comparison of plasma
in the presence of magnetic field or not was performed. As shown
The mechanism of laser induced plasma micro-machining silicon in Fig. 2 (b), the plasma pictures were captured when their fluence
were the largest and stable. It can be seen that compared to the
The mechanism of magnetic field assisted LIP micro machining plasma in the absence of magnetic field, the size and fluence of
single crystal silicon mainly depends on laser-plasma interactions, plasma in the presence of magnetic field were larger, and the
laser-material surface coupling, and transport & thermomagnetic greatest enhancement effect of magnetic field on plasma is under
effects as shown in Fig. 1(a). a magnetic field of 0.1 T. The largest growth of plasma fluence
was 12.61% when the magnetic field strength was 0.1 T, compared
Laser-plasma interaction effects under magnetic field to that of 0 T.
Plasma magnetization can significantly improve the perfor- In a word, the assisted magnetic field could contribute to signif-
mance of laser-material surface coupling in some respects, includ- icantly increase the depth and aspect ratio of machining area and
ing the fastest rate of LIP confinement, modification of the LIP improve the machining performance of LIPMM during LIP micro
optical response, and characteristics of LIP expansion under the machining single crystal silicon.
effect of external magnetic field [18,19,21], as shown in Fig. 1(b).
On the side of the fastest rate of LIP confinement, the speed rate
of LIP confinement by magnetic field is confirmed via calculating Experimental procedure
cyclotron frequency and cyclotron period as the following equa-
tions [18]. Experimental setup

qB 2p
xC ¼ ; sC ¼ ð2Þ An Nd-YVO4 laser (Lumera Lasers Inc.) was used in this study,
m xC with a 532 nm wavelength and 8 ps pulse duration operating at
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Fig. 1. The principle of LIPMM and effect of magnetic field on plasma: (a) the principle diagram of LIPMM; (b) the effect of magnetic field on plasma confinement [21].

its second harmonic. The experimental setup for LIPMM was intensities (0.05 T, 0.1 T, 0.15 T, 0.2 T and 0.3 T) were selected to
shown in Fig. 3. The workpiece was placed in a petri dish, and conduct experiments.
immersed into a 10 mm of distilled water. The petri dish was taped The plasma fluence in the magnetic field was also observed by
on a 5-x freedom motion stage with a resolution of 10 nm. Neody- an ultra-fast gated camera (Model: LaVision PicoStar HR 12). The
mium permanent magnets (Grade N52) with a surface field of machined channels were cleaned for 5 min to eliminate the depo-
5,400 Gauss were applied to produce magnetic field. Single- sition by using Ultrasonic cleaning machine. The morphology of
crystal silicon was selected as workpiece material due to its wide the machined channels were examined by SEM (Model: EPIC
application in aerospace field. SEM Hitachi S-3400). The size of microgrooves including its width
and depth were detected by an Alicona infinite focus measurement
Experimental design and measurement 3D metrology system. Besides, the bubble motion was observed
and recorded by using high speed camera with 2000 fps in MF-
The different process parameters including pulse repetition fre- LIPMM.
quency (10 kHz, 25 kHz, 50 kHz and 80 kHz) and magnetic field
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Fig. 2. The plasma images under different times and magnetic field strengths: (a) the plasma images and its fluence under different time; (b) the plasma images and its
largest fluence under different magnetic field strengths.

Fig. 3. The experimental setup.

Results and discussion that larger repetition frequency will obtain larger width of grooves
and better surface morphologies including finer texture, more
Effect of repetition frequency on the surface integrity straight and homogeneous heat affected zone. This can be attribu-
ted to that larger repetition frequency means more numerous laser
The effect of repetition frequency on the surface integrity of pulses and total laser power will be used to induce the plasma
machined channels is investigated in LIPMM under different repe- under same machining time, which can promote stronger multi-
tition frequency as shown in Fig. 4(a)-(d). The surface morpholo- photon ionization and cascade ionization, resulting in more
gies, and width of grooves including the heat affected zone and numerous excited free electrons and ions. This will contribute to
channel are both analyzed. From Fig. 4(a)-(d), it can be obtained larger size of and intensity of plasma, and then more sufficient

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Fig. 4. Surface morphologies of channel generated by MF-LIPMM under different repetition frequency (a-d) and different magnetic field strength by 10 kHz (e-j).

thermal material removal and solidification process, finally lead to more uniform along the channels as shown in Fig. 4(e), (f) and
refined grain of surface texture and larger head affected zone [25]. (h). The results of width of machined groove including heat
However, too large repetition frequency maybe results in the cav- affected zone and channel also indicate that magnetic field can
ity generated in the channels on account of bubbles problem, decrease the heat affected zone with maximum reduction of
which is harmful for surface quality and will be further investi- 12.64% under 0.1 T magnetic field as shown in Fig. 4. These can
gated in following section. be explained that on the one hand, magnetic field can confine
the electrons of plasma within the central part of LIP due to large
Effect of magnetic field on surface integrity cyclotron frequency for plasma particles and small Larmor radius
of electrons, which decreases the geometric dimension of plasma
To explore the effects of magnetic field on surface integrity in this direction. On the other hand, magnetic field will also
when machining silicon, the surface integrity of the machined increase the plasma intensity when machining silicon materials
channels including surface morphologies, heat affected zone, and by plasma-propagation effects including plasma magnetization
element content analysis are all measured in MF-LIPMM. The sur- and magneto-absorption effects. Moreover, thermal radiation of
face morphologies and heat affected zone are shown in Fig. 4(e)-(j) plasma will be beneficial to material removal [26]. The Above
under magnetic field strengths from 0 T to 0.3 T. From Fig. 4(e)-(j), results will contribute to more extensive material removal in depth
it can be seen that the rough surface morphologies obtained with- direction and less solidification in width direction.
out magnetic field are gradually transformed into smoother in the Table 1 presents the comparison of machining performance by
presence of magnetic field, especially when the magnetic field different laser machining methods from related literatures. Com-
strength is larger than 0.1 T. The surface morphologies become pared with other researches about laser machining silicon, the best
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Fig. 4 (continued)

Table 1
Comparison of machining performance by different laser machining methods.

Machining technique Types of laser The depth of The width of The Thickness of Heat
micro groove micro groove aspect recast layer affected
(lm) (lm) ratio (lm) zone (lm)
Tang et al. (2019) Magnetic field– Femtosecond pulse laser with – 11 – Reduced Reduced
assisted LIPMM in with a wavelength of 520 nm
ethanol
Tangwarodomnukun Laser micromachining Nanosecond pulse fberlaser – 140 – 80 Reduce
et al. (2018) in air with a wavelength of 1064 nm
Tangwarodomnukun Laser micromachining Nanosecond pulse fberlaser 110 20 5.5 30 Reduced
et al. (2018) in ice layer with a wavelength of 1064 nm
Farrokhi et al. (2016) Magnetic field UV nanosecond pulse laser with 9.76 – – – –
assisted laser ablation a wavelength of 355 nm
Saxena et al. (2014) LIPMM in water Picosecond pulse laser with a 11 10 1.1 – no
wavelength of 532 nm significant
Our study MC-LIPMM in water Picosecond pulse laser with a 49.42 8.438 5.857 About 5 14.789
wavelength of 532 nm

recast layer and heat-affected zone were about 5 lm and material removal. This is due to the fact larger plasma intensity
14.789 lm, which both have been reduced significantly in this can be achieved by magnetic field due to enhancement of the laser
study. As Tang et al. [21] stated, magnetic field and laser processing energy absorption.
in liquid could contribute to achieve high-quality smooth surface
without obvious thermal defects.
The element content analysis is also conducted to further Effect of magnetic field on the geometrical shape of micro channel
explore the impact mechanism of magnetic field on surface integ-
rity with or without magnetic field in LIPMM as shown in Fig. 5. It Extreme high aspect ratio is one of most important micro-
can be found that the percentage of oxygen element is larger (2.9%) machining performance indicators for the fabrication of micro or
when there exists a magnetic field, compared to without magnetic nano-structures. Thus the shape characteristics including depth,
field (1.2%). Larger percentage of oxygen element means more heat width, and aspect ratio (depth/width) of micro channels by MC-
energy is transferred into workpiece, and more material is eroded, LIPMM, which are closely related to assisted magnetic field and
oxidized, and re-solidified, which further confirmed that magnetic laser parameters, are completely analyzed in this section. As the
field can promote more violent machining process and larger theoretical analysis in section 2, micro channels with large depth
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ratio of 5.857, increased by 90.26%, can be obtained with magnetic

field intensity of 0.05 T and repetition frequency of 80 kHz.
Above phenomena can be attributed to that on the one hand,
the optical properties of silicon are modified by a magnetic field,
which contribute the absorption modification of free conduction
electrons due to the generation of two minima on the reflectivity
spectrum in silicon [27]. On the other hand, magnetic field can
increase the electron density in the plasma by the suppression of
the loss rate of free diffusion and confinement effects, which leads
to larger collision frequencies between electrons-ions and more
numerous excited electrons, resulting in larger laser absorption
ratios and a further increase in intensity and temperature of
plasma [28]. It’s worth to mention that with the increase of the
temperature of the plasma, the collision frequency of electrons-
ions will inversely decrease, which indicates that there is a limit
in the enhancement effect of magnetic field on plasma. Further-
more, the confinement effects of the external magnetic field on free
electrons in the plasma plume could reshape the profile of the
induced plasma into slim plume, which is attributed to narrow
width and enlarge depth of micro channels by MC-LIMPP.
As shown in Table 1, the best aspect ratio of the processed
micro-grooves by MC-LIPMM was 5.857 lm with corresponding
groove depth and width of 8.438 lm and 49.42 lm in our study.
Compared with the aspect ratio of laser machining silicon without
magnetic field assisted from Tangwarodomnukun et al. [9], the
aspect ratio has been increased by 6.5%, and the line width can
be narrowed by 57.81%. Thus magnetic field can effectively regu-
late the laser-induced plasma processing to achieve high aspect
ratio.

Bubble behavior
Fig.5. The element content analysis of the machined channel surface (repetition
frequency 10 kHz).
The expanding cavitation bubbles induced by the plasma plume
on the laser-irradiated area has an important effect on machining
surface integrity in LIPMM. Not only the generation and expansion
and high aspect ratio as well as fine surface integrity can be of bubbles can produce a shock pressure and liquid jets in the sur-
achieved via MC-LIPMM. rounding water and workpiece [29], but also exerts negative effect
Fig. 6(a) and (b) present the variations of depth and width in on the stabilization of the plasma through the scattering and
micro channels by MC-LIPMM under the different magnetic field refraction of the laser beam [30]. The bubble behavior is more vio-
intensity (from 0 T to 0.3 T) and laser frequencies (from 10 to lent when machining single crystal silicon due to its high reflectiv-
80 kHz). It can be found that the assisted parallel magnetic field ity and special optical properties. As shown in Fig. 9, the huge
contributes to enlarge the depth of micro channels while narrow cavity induced by the bubbles explosion will absolutely damage
the width of micro channels, so aspect ratio can be significantly the machined surface integrity and machining accuracy.
improved as shown in Fig. 6(c). As shown in SEM and 3D images To avoid above problems, the bubble behavior needs to be fur-
about the shape of micro channels on single crystal silicon in ther studied by observing the bubble behavior when machining sil-
MC-LIPMM, with the increase of magnetic field intensity, the icon in LIPMM. An observation system is established equipped
widths of micro channels are sharply reduced while their depths with a high speed camera, an optical filter (532 nm) and other
are gradually enhanced under the laser frequency 10 kHz. By com- accessories. Observations from two perspectives (front view and
prehensive analysis of Figs. 6, 7 and 8, the average width and depth top view) are performed to comprehensively observe bubble
of micro channels are all much better than those of no magnetic behavior. The bubble behaviors from top view are shown in
field assisted LIPMM under different laser frequencies. Under the Fig. 10(a) and (b). It can be seen that most bubbles group behind
effect of magnetic field, the width can be maximum decreased by the laser focus and continue to flow towards to the opposite direc-
62.57% with magnetic field intensity of 0.1 T and repetition fre- tion of feed direction, which maybe result from the temperature
quency of 10 kHz, while the depth can be maximum increased and pressure difference between the laser focus and machined
by 26.23% with magnetic field intensity of 0.05 T and repetition area. The generation of such numerous bubbles is maybe attribu-
frequency of 80 kHz. ted to that the pulse laser overheats the materials and dielectric,
Aspect ratio of micro channels apparently fluctuates with the resulting in the dynamic removal behavior of workpiece materials
increase of magnetic field intensity, but there is a critical point, and the evaporation of dielectric fluid. Some micro cracks and
the optimal value, during this variation process. The critical points indentations on the workpiece surface will provide adhesion points
of magnetic field strength affecting the depth, width and aspect for bubbles nuclei, and then few bubbles can adhere in the front
ratio of micro channels all come out at about 0.1 T under low laser and on the side of the focus as shown in Fig. 10 (b). The bubbles
frequencies (like 10, 25 kHz), while their critical points appear ear- adhered in the front or on the side of the focus hardly move, and
lier at about 0.05 T under high laser frequencies (like 50, 80 kHz). a few small bubbles gradually congregated into a larger bubble,
After the critical point, the shape characteristics of micro channels which an explosion occurs when this bubble exceeds the size
probably turn to be not outstanding even though they are still bet- threshold. This explosive behavior of bubbles will produce huge
ter than those of no magnetic field assisted LIPMM. The best aspect shock wave and explosive force in the local area, and this indicates
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Fig. 6. The shape and aspect ratio of micro channels on single crystal silicon in MC-LIPMM.

that the bubbles adhered surrounding the laser focus will more Conclusions
likely damage the surface integrity. The explosion size of bubble
(represented by its diameter db) depends on its internal pressure 1. MC-LIPMM was proposed to process single-crystal silicon
and the tension of the boundary surface between the bubble and with small heat affected zone and good surface morphologies.
dielectric fluid as expressed by [31]: Experimental studies revealed that magnetic field intensity and
repetition frequency both had considerable impact on surface
4r
db ¼ ð4Þ integrity including heat affected zone and surface morphologies.
pb
The heat affected zone and smooth surface morphologies can be
where r is the tension, and pb is the internal pressure. decreased with maximum reduction of 12.64% under magnetic
The bubble behavior on front view is also observed when the field of 0.1 T and repetition frequency of 10 kHz.
feed rate is set as 0.1 mm/s as shown in Fig. 10(c)-(f). It can be 2. Magnetic field contributed to enhance the geometrical shape
found that bubbles continue to rise and the floating speed is much of the micro-channels by MC-LIPMM, resulting in maximum reduc-
faster than the feed speed of the laser focus, which is due to the tion of 62.57% for width as well as maximum increase of 26.23% for
buoyancy effect and temperature difference between laser path depth. The best aspect ratio of 5.857, increased by 90.26%, can be
and surrounding medium. These floated upward bubbles will block obtained under magnetic field intensity of 0.05 T and repetition
the path of laser beam and scatter the laser beam, which affects the frequency of 80 kHz.
stability of the plasma and then damages the surface integrity. 3. An extraordinary scenario that the excessive bubbles severely
Based on above analysis, it is evident that the bubbles adhered adhere on the surrounding of the laser focus and rapidly float
on the surrounding of the laser focus and floated upward will be upward with an end to explosions was observed and analyzed.
harmful to the machined surface integrity. This gives us a direct Since the bubble behavior perhaps blocks the path of laser beam
understanding about the bubble behaviors, and using flow water and scatters the laser beam in the MC-LIPMM process, it negatively
maybe a good method to deal with the bubble problem, which will affects the stability of the plasma and then damages the surface
be further studied in our further work. integrity of single-crystal silicon.
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Fig. 7. SEM images of the width in micro channels under different magnetic field intensity (Repetition frequency 10 kHz).

Compliance with ethics requirements Acknowledgement

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal This research is supported by National Natural Science Founda-
subjects. tion of China (NSFC) under Grant Nos. 51705171 and 51975228,
Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong No. 2020A151501638
Declaration of Competing Interest and the program of China Scholarship Council
(No.201806160076). This research is also supported by the Beijing
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan- Institute of Aeronautical Materials (BIAM). The authors would also
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared like to thank Prof. Kornel F. Ehmann of Northwestern University for
to influence the work reported in this paper. his contribution in this paper.

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Y. Zhang, Z. Zhang, Y. Zhang et al. Journal of Advanced Research 30 (2021) 39–51

Fig. 8. 3D images of the depth in micro channels under different magnetic field intensity (Repetition frequency 50 kHz).

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Y. Zhang, Z. Zhang, Y. Zhang et al. Journal of Advanced Research 30 (2021) 39–51

Fig. 9. SEM images of bubble affected area.

Fig. 10. Bubbles images obtained by high speed camera on top view (a-b) and front view (c-f) by 10 kHz.

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Y. Zhang, Z. Zhang, Y. Zhang et al. Journal of Advanced Research 30 (2021) 39–51

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