Spatiotemporal manipulation of ultrashort pulses for three-dimensional (3-D) laser processing in glass materials

This chapter describes the features of femtosecond laser processing and provides a review on the recent progress toward the development of spatiotemporal manipulation techniques of femtosecond laser pulses. By controlling the spatial and temporal properties of femtosecond laser pulses, the laser focal spot can be precisely tailored and the propagation dynamics of femtosecond laser pulses in transparent materials can be controlled. Thus, the use of spatial-temporally tailored femtosecond laser pulses can reduce nonlinear self-focussing in transparent materials, which would be useful for 3-D processing in samples of large thicknesses or highly nonlinear materials such as some polymers and crystals.