What Is Laser Ablation? | A Simple Breakdown of Its Meaning and How It Works

Laser ablation is a processing technique that selectively removes material from a solid surface. By using various types of lasers, it can be applied to a wide range of materials, including metals, semiconductors, glass, and polymers. This article explains laser ablation and, at the end, introduces several related technical terms.

The mechanism of laser ablation lies in using laser light to vaporize or remove material from a surface. More specifically, when the intense laser light strikes a material, the high-energy photons*¹ within the beam are absorbed by the atoms and molecules in the material.

Once this energy is absorbed, the atoms and molecules become activated*² and shift into a different state than usual. For example, they may heat up dramatically or even be ejected from the surface. As this happens, the material’s surface is gradually removed—this is the basic process of laser ablation.

By leveraging this process, highly precise machining and removal become possible, making laser ablation widely used in fields that require fine, micro-scale processing.

*¹ Photon → A tiny “particle” of light energy.
*² Activation → A state where atoms or molecules become overly energized and can no longer remain stable.

1. Non-contact processing that minimizes material damage
Because the laser processes the material without physical contact, no tool wear occurs and the surface can be machined cleanly. This makes it ideal for precision components. With no mechanical stress applied, it is also suitable for brittle materials.

2. High-precision, micro-scale processing
The laser spot size is extremely small, allowing micron-level machining while keeping heat-affected areas to a minimum. It is well suited for fine patterning in semiconductors and electronic components.

3. Compatible with a wide range of materials
Laser ablation can be used not only on metals but also on glass, ceramics, plastics, and more. It is especially effective for transparent materials and highly reflective materials that are difficult to process with conventional methods.

4. High selectivity in processing
Because the laser can target only the required area, unwanted sections remain untouched. This enables precise machining of specific locations and offers flexibility for complex shapes and designs.

5. Clean processing environment
No cutting oil or chemical agents are required, keeping the workspace clean and reducing environmental impact. Post-processing cleaning and handling are also minimized.

6. Faster processing—especially for thin materials
Thin substrates can be processed at high speed, improving productivity and contributing to efficiency in mass-production lines.

7. Applicable across many industries
Laser ablation is used in a wide range of fields, including medical devices, electronics, automotive components, energy technologies, and even aerospace.

Laser ablation is a processing technique that can be applied to a wide variety of materials. Depending on the material, it is important to adjust parameters such as laser wavelength and output. This technology is effective for many types of materials—including metals, semiconductors, plastics, and glass—allowing each material’s unique properties to be utilized during processing.

Laser ablation for metal materials is widely used across industries such as manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, electronics, and decorative processing. It enables non-contact, high-precision operations—including cutting, drilling, engraving, marking, surface cleaning, and coating removal—on metals like stainless steel and aluminum. For example, it is used for surface preparation prior to painting or bonding, removal of rust or corrosion layers, industrial marking such as lot numbers, and even fine decorative etching.

By selecting the appropriate laser wavelength and output, micro-processing can be achieved without compromising the metal’s strength or surface quality. Fiber lasers and nanosecond LD-pumped solid-state lasers are commonly used, while ultra-short-pulse (USP) lasers are chosen for thin, heat-sensitive materials or highly precise applications.

Laser ablation for semiconductor materials is widely used in microelectronics and semiconductor manufacturing for applications requiring high precision, such as wafer marking, etching, fine patterning, and thin-film removal. Semiconductors like silicon and gallium arsenide transmit infrared light, making green and UV wavelengths—generated by nanosecond LD-pumped solid-state lasers—particularly effective.

By selecting wavelengths that match the material’s band gap, localized heating and efficient material evaporation can be achieved, enabling highly accurate ablation. In addition, ultrashort-pulse (USP) lasers are used for advanced micro-machining and material removal in IC failure analysis, contributing significantly to the advancement of high-precision semiconductor processing technologies.

Laser ablation for plastics and polymer materials enables high-precision processing with relatively low energy, making it useful across a wide range of industries—from fine engraving and marking to surface texturing of medical implants, coating removal for medical devices, and SiP device processing in microelectronics.

In fields such as medical technology and electronic component manufacturing, the ability to form precise patterns or remove material while minimizing thermal and mechanical impact on the substrate makes laser ablation an essential technique.

Depending on the polymer type and required processing speed, various lasers—such as nanosecond lasers, UV lasers, and ultrashort-pulse (USP) lasers—are selected to achieve optimal precision and processing quality.

Here are several processing techniques enabled by laser ablation.

Laser ablation excels in ablation, where extremely high precision is required. It enables the accurate creation of fine structures and patterns that were difficult or impossible to achieve with conventional laser processing. By irradiating the target surface with laser light, unwanted material is vaporized or removed, forming the intended shapes with high fidelity.

By adjusting parameters such as laser wavelength and pulse width, the depth and intricate details of the machined features can be precisely controlled. Optimizing ablation conditions for each material allows the technique to be applied across a wide range of substrates, making it highly valuable in fields such as electronics and biotechnology, where fine-scale microfabrication is essential.

PLD (Pulsed Laser Deposition) is a technique that applies laser ablation to deposit particles released from a target material onto a substrate, forming a thin film. When high-energy laser pulses strike the target, the material rapidly evaporates, and the resulting vapor cools and condenses on the substrate, creating a precise thin film.

A major advantage of this method is its compatibility with a wide range of materials, including metals, ceramics, and insulators. Because it allows fine control over film thickness and composition while producing highly functional thin films, PLD has become an increasingly important technology in fields such as electronic devices and optical components.

Laser ablation is also used for generating ultrafine particles. By irradiating a target material with high-energy laser pulses, **nanometer-scale particles can be produced**. During this process, atoms and molecules in the material become excited, leading to the formation of highly pure and uniform nanoparticles.

These ultrafine particles show great promise in nanotechnology, where their unique physical and chemical properties contribute to the development of advanced materials and functional substances. Their importance continues to grow, particularly in cutting-edge fields such as electronics and biotechnology.

Laser ablation locally vaporizes the surface of a material using laser light, and this process is particularly effective for elemental analysis. Although the laser energy interacts differently depending on the physical properties of the target, selecting an appropriate wavelength and pulse width allows specific elements to be selectively vaporized.

The resulting fine particles and vapor can then be examined using instruments such as mass spectrometers or optical analyzers. This makes it possible to accurately identify the types and concentrations of elements within the sample.

Elemental analysis using laser ablation offers high sensitivity and selectivity, enabling multi-component analysis even for complex samples.

Short-wavelength light used in laser ablation offers significant advantages in both processing accuracy and efficiency due to its high-energy characteristics. Because the energy of light increases as its wavelength becomes shorter, short-wavelength lasers—often referred to as ultraviolet or deep-UV lasers—deliver photons with high individual energy, allowing them to interact with material surfaces in a sharp and highly localized manner. This enables extremely fine and precise machining, making short-wavelength lasers indispensable in advanced applications such as thin-film formation and microstructure processing.

Short-wavelength lasers also play an important role in the medical field. In laser treatments and surgical procedures where minimizing patient burden is essential, the high energy density of short-wavelength light allows tissue to be rapidly vaporized while reducing bleeding and discomfort. This makes highly accurate and minimally invasive treatment possible, contributing to their widespread use in modern medical applications.

Laser fusion involves irradiating a solid fuel capsule—containing deuterium and tritium—with extremely high-intensity laser pulses to trigger an instantaneous implosion and promote nuclear fusion. This process creates an ultra-high-temperature, high-pressure environment that enables energy release under the necessary conditions.

A key part of this mechanism is the formation of the implosion plasma, where laser ablation plays a crucial role.

Laser ablation technology is used across a wide range of industries. In the medical field, it has become an essential component of devices requiring precise laser-based processing. For example, laser-assisted tissue removal and cutting enable minimally invasive treatments with reduced impact on the patient.

The semiconductor industry also relies heavily on laser ablation. High-power lasers are used for microfabrication, circuit formation, and thin-film removal, providing highly efficient material processing. In particular, femtosecond lasers enable high-precision machining at short wavelengths and can be applied to a wide variety of materials.

Additionally, laser processing combined with plasma technology is effective for surface treatment of plastics and metals. Laser ablation is continuously being developed by many manufacturers, and its applications continue to expand in response to the needs of various industries.

At SEISHIN, we leveraged our expertise in laser processing—particularly for the semiconductor industry—to develop a pre-processing system for elemental analysis. By using ultra-fine machining through laser ablation, samples that were previously difficult to analyze can now be processed in a significantly shorter time.