Laser Processing Method and Equipment

摘要

A laser processing method and apparatus capable of forming an extremely minute modified area not exceeding half the diffraction limit value of the laser wavelength used for processing without causing plasma in a processing object such as a dielectric material substrate or semiconductor material substrate. In this technology, attention is paid to the fact that new damage is caused even at laser intensity that does not cause plasma at all, and a laser beam (1) that has lower laser intensity than the laser intensity threshold at which plasma occurs (for example, approximately 1/1.5 of that laser intensity threshold) is convergently radiated into a processing object (10) using an irradiation optical system (20) accuracy-designed so as not to cause a self-focusing effect at the convergence location (3).