Effect of defocusing on ablated volume of gadolinium oxide

Oba, Masaki ; Maruyama, Yoichiro; Akaoka, Katsuaki ; Miyabe, Masabumi   ; Wakaida, Ikuo  

We used nanosecond (ns) and femtosecond (fs) laser pulses to ablate gadolinium oxide samples and measured the ablated volume as a function of the laser pulse focal position. The defocusing effect of the ablated volume, which decreases as the ablation pulse focal position approaches the sample surface, was observed for both ns and fs pulses.