Influence of ambient pressure on the hole formation process in

ultrashort pulse laser deep drilling

Sven Dring*a, Sren Richtera, Tobias Ullspergera, Andreas Tnnermanna,b, Stefan Noltea,b
a
Institute of Applied Physics, Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich-Schiller-Universitt Jena,
Max-Wien-Platz 1, 07743 Jena, Germany;
b
Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, Albert-Einstein-Strae 7,
07745 Jena, Germany
ABSTRACT
We investigate the influence of the ambient pressure on the hole formation process during percussion drilling of silicon
by applying an in-situ imaging technique. In this study the pressure is varied from atmospheric conditions down to
medium vacuum of 10 !bar. Drilling was performed using an ultrashort pulse system providing 8 ps pulses with up to
125 !J at 1030 nm. At this wavelength, the ablation behavior of silicon is comparable to metals. At the beginning of the
drilling process, we observe an increased drilling efficiency by 40% already for a moderate pressure decrease to 100
mbar. The formation of an ideally shaped hole lasts for approximately 200 pulses instead of only 100 as for atmospheric
conditions and therefore leads to 3 times the depth at this point. The effect can be enhanced by increasing the pulse
energy, but not by decreasing pressure further. However, the number of pulses till the end of the drilling process is
extended by decreasing the pressure further. For a low ambient pressure of 10 !bar, this is accompanied by an increase
of the maximum achievable depth of more than 100%. Simultaneously the hole shape changes from a few ends and
bulges at atmospheric conditions to numerous branches over the complete lower part of the hole at low pressure. This
drilling behavior can be attributed to a better removal of ablated particles from the hole capillary with decreasing
pressure, which leads to lower scattering losses for the pulse propagation inside the hole.
Keywords: laser drilling, laser material interaction, micromachining, in-situ imaging, real time observation

1. INTRODUCTION
Ultrashort laser pulses exhibit special ablation characteristics, which feature a nearly direct solid-vapor transition and
negligible thermal impact in the vicinity of the ablation spot1-4. Therefore, they offer a lot of advantages to generate high
quality microstructures with limited melt- and burr-formation and high precision in their dimensions. Current industrial
applications cover for example thin-film photovoltaics, print-cylinder engraving and structuring of injection-nozzles5-7.
All those examples generate structures on the surface that have only a small aspect ratio. The realization of deep, high
aspect-ratio structures, like holes, encounters additional, new effects which make the preservation of the known quality
of surface ablation more than challenging. Such effects consist of the decrease of ablation rate with increasing depth until
the complete stop of drilling and the change of the holes cross section, which strongly depends on the hole formation
process in addition to the beam properties and its polarization.
The use of silicon as a model system for the ablation of opaque materials like metals offers the possibility of applying an
in-situ imaging system to gain new insight into the shape evolution of the hole during drilling8,9. Previous investigations
that covered the influence of pulse energy and fluence, wavelength and pulse duration showed in general three distinct
process phases for a percussion drilling process10. In the first phase, the drilling forms an ideally shaped capillary with
tapered sidewalls and a hemispherical tip due to the incident Gaussian beam profile. This phase lasts only for the first
100 to 200 pulses and is capable of drilling ca. 25% of the final hole depth. In the second phase, drilling continues at a
lower ablation rate and shows additional effects, that only occur for high aspect ratio structures. These are especially
imperfections on the sidewalls like indents and bulges, but also the formation of branches and several hole ends. Within
this phase, periods of constant depth and predominant ablation in transverse direction can occur. The occurrence of all
these effects is statistical and cannot be predicted.
*sven.doering@uni-jena.de; phone +49 (0) 3641 947 825; fax +49 (0) 3641 947 802; www.iap.uni-jena.de
Frontiers in Ultrafast Optics: Biomedical, Scientific, and Industrial Applications XIII, Alexander Heisterkamp,
Peter R. Herman, Michel Meunier, Stefan Nolte, Eds., Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8611, 86111D 2013 SPIE
CCC code: 0277-786X/13/$18 doi: 10.1117/12.2006083
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Depending on the applied pulse energy, the second process phase can last for several thousand to several ten thousand
pulses. After reaching the final depth, ablation can still continue in transverse direction on the sidewalls due to the pulse
flanks and increase the overall diameter of the hole.
Several possible reasons for the formation of the imperfections during the drilling process are under discussion:
(1) reflection or scattering of the pulse by existing imperfections along the sidewalls, (2) scattering or deflection of the
beam at ablation particles that still reside within the hole or that are deposited on the side walls and (3) abrasion of the
side walls by the generated ablation products and particles themselves.
In this study, we concentrate on the influence of particle redeposition within the hole capillary on the further shape
formation. Therefore, the movability of these ablation products is changed by varying the pressure of the ambient gas,
which acts as a mechanical confinement or resistance to the expansion of the ablated particles.
Previous studies of particle redeposition around the hole entrance on the surface showed that the small nanoparticles and
clusters with sizes of a few nanometer - which are typically generated by ultrashort laser pulses together with atoms and
ions11-13 tend to form large, cotton-like particle agglomerations for pressures above 100 mbar 14. A reduced ambient
pressure reduces the debris density until almost no particle depositions can be observed for pressures below 10-1 mbar.
Furthermore, it has been shown, that the ambient pressure directly influences the drilling efficiency. Measurements of
the drill-through time of stainless steel and aluminum sheets under vacuum conditions revealed a decrease in the drilling
time by a factor of 10 15,16. The same results have been obtained when the experiments were repeated with nanosecond
pulses17. On the one hand this has been attributed to the formation of an oxidized layer when ablation takes place in air,
which is then much harder to ablate by subsequent pulses. This can be the case, especially for aluminum. On the other
hand, a lower ambient pressure also results in reduced nonlinear interaction of the laser pulses with the surrounding air.
Therefore, nonlinear broadening of the laser spot is strongly reduced under vacuum conditions and the hole diameter is
smaller. When the volume ablation rate is considered to be constant, this would result in a higher depth ablation rate and
hence increased drilling efficiency. Finally, the decreased mechanical confinement and cooling effect of the ambient gas
envelope under reduced pressure can also increase the ablation rate18. This reduced confinement and the vanishing of the
shock wave for ablation have been directly observed by shadowgraphic imaging of the ablation products above the
surface19.
In our study we observe the influence of the ambient pressure on the hole shape formation by applying an in-situ imaging
technique to follow the evolution of each single hole. Afterwards, we correlate the behavior of the shape development
with the redeposition of particles within the hole capillary which are revealed by scanning electron images of hole cross
sections.

2. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
For our experiments, we adapted the in-situ imaging setup that had been developed for previous investigations9. To
perform percussion drilling, a laser at 1030 nm with 8 ps pulse duration (Trumpf, TruMicro5050) is focused on the top
surface of a silicon sample by a lens with focal length of 100 mm, which is typical for micromachining applications.
Simultaneously, the sample is illuminated from the side at 1060 nm and the silhouette of the developing hole is projected
onto a CCD-camera by a microscope objective. This camera records the drilling process at 50 fps, while the drilling
radiation is applied at 200 Hz, which results in one image for every four pulses. The low repetition rate of the drilling
laser ensures limited interaction of subsequent laser pulses with ablated particles that did not escape the hole entrance
and/or are not deposited, yet. The sample is placed inside a vacuum chamber, which allows the variation of the ambient
pressure from 1000 mbar (atmospheric conditions) to less than 10-2 mbar. The actual pressure was regulated by the help
of a needle valve. Fig.1 shows a photo of the setup inside the vacuum chamber, while the top cover is removed.

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drilling laser (1030 nm)

imaging laser (1060 nm)
wide -range manometer
focusing lens (f =100 mm)

silicon sample

microscope objective

vacuum chamber

CCD camera

Figure 1. The imaging setup is placed inside a vacuum chamber (shown here with removed top cover) to vary the
pressure of ambient air.

The mechanical confinement of the ablation particles by the ambient gas (air in our case) can be estimated by the mean
free path ! . In a first approximation for an ideal gas at a pressure p and temperature T , ! is given by20

!=

kT
2! d 2 p

(1)

and is inversely proportional to the ambient pressure. In Eq. 1, k denotes the Boltzmann constant and d the diameter of
the gas molecules. The actual estimated values for nitrogen with a diameter of 0.31 nm 21 are summarized in Tab. 1,
which shows, that for the pressure range under investigation, the movability of the ablation products is changed from a
few nanometers to a range that matches or exceeds the expected hole depth of several hundred micrometer.
Table 1. Estimated mean free path for the pressure range used in the experiment.
Pressure p

Mean free path !

1000 mbar

95 nm

100 mbar

950 nm

1 mbar

95 !m

10-2 mbar

9.5 mm

With respect to the size of the ablated particles, their temperature and directed movement away from the surface, the
actual mean free path will be different from the values in Tab. 1, but it offers a first approximation, nevertheless.
In addition to the imaging of the drilling process, we also investigated the inner structure of the holes by taking scanning
electron microscope (SEM) images of the cross sections after breaking the samples apart. Therefore, we prepare the
samples with a groove along the sidewalls, which later acts as the starting point of the crack. In a next step, the groove is
aligned to the drilling laser with the help of the imaging system. After drilling, breaking the brittle silicon sample along
the groove exposes a cross section of the hole. Since no conventional cutting procedure is required, the particle
deposition inside the hole is left unchanged by our technique and can be directly observed.

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In Fig. 5, an example for the hole shape evolution during one of the pronounced intermediate periods of constant depth
and the following much shorter period of depth increase for a pressure of 10-2 mbar at 125 !J pulse energy is shown, i.e.
the hole development between 160,000 and 280,000 pulses. This example starts at 160,000 pulses, which means the hole
already reached a depth of about 1 mm and has undergone some of the growth periods which lead to the branching in the
lower half. During the next 100,000 pulses, no forward drilling can be observed and the depth stays constant, which
means the pulse energy that reaches the lowest tip of the hole is insufficient for further ablation or coupling of the pulse
energy to the material at the tip of the hole is so weak, that no ablation in forward direction is caused. Nevertheless,
ablation can still be observed along the sidewalls of the complete lower half of the hole. The changes in the hole shape
after 160,000 pulses are marked in red in Fig. 5. Additional branches, bulges and side indents have been formed. In
addition, also the inner structure of the hole will have changed. This can be attributed to the successive ablation of edges,
ridges and similar structures that formerly caused a sidewards deflection or scattering of the beam at a certain position. In
consequence, we observe, that the formation of a new side branch or indent stops after a certain time and then ablation
resumes at another position forming another bulge. But also the diameter and shape of the inner capillary at the hole tip
may be changed, eventually leading to better energy coupling, for example by flattening of the tip. In the end, drilling
can continue in forward direction, as marked by the green part in Fig. 5, and during this period of forward drilling, no
ablation is observable along the sidewalls of the already existing upper part of the hole.
Coming back to the final hole shape in Fig. 4, we also observe a difference in the entrance diameter for different pressure
conditions. At atmospheric pressure, the entrance diameter is rather large and shows a pronounced taper. In contrast,
drilling at lower ambient pressure (for 100 mbar and below) reduces the entrance diameter and the adjacent taper. In
agreement with previous observations2, we attribute this effect to a nonlinear interaction of the ultrashort laser pulses
with the ambient gas and a resulting broadening of the intensity distribution in the focus. When the pressure and hence
the density of the gas is decreased, this nonlinear interaction is reduced and does not affect the hole shape. Since the
beam broadening only leads to a weak increase of the fluence at the outside margin of the beam, the effect takes several
hundred to thousand pulses to evolve and thus is not visible at the beginning of the drilling process in Fig. 2(b).
3.3 Internal structure of the holes
A comparison of the internal structure of two holes, one drilled at an ambient pressure of 1000 mbar and the other one at
10-2 mbar, on the basis of cross section images at 10,000 pulses for each is presented in Fig. 6. With the help of these
images we are going to analyze the role of particle redeposition on the drilling behavior. As shown in Fig. 6(a) for a
pressure of 1000 mbar, large agglomerations of particles form a cloud or cotton like structure at the hole entrance, i.e. the
first 100 !m of the hole. These particle clusters also cover the sidewalls of the middle of the hole, at a depth of 200 !m
to 300 !m, still with the same thickness and density. Since these structures extend into the middle of the hole they have
to be stable against ablation by subsequent pulses. This signifies that passing pulses cause only a minor degree of
ablation, which can be attributed to the roughness and high surface area of the debris clouds, and in addition the particles
that are ablated from the agglomerations may be replaced to the same amount by fresh redepositions. The density of
debris is reduced for larger depths, but still at the tip of the hole small particles and particle agglomerations cover the
sidewalls. For a pressure of 10-2 mbar, as shown in Fig. 6(b), the situation at the hole entrance is comparable to 1000
mbar with a thick layer of cloud like particle agglomerations. In contrast to higher ambient pressure, the density of debris
strongly decreases with increasing depth in this case and already at a depth of about 200 !m particle redeposition on the
sidewalls nearly disappeared leaving a clean capillary in the middle part of the hole. Also at the hole tip, no particle
redeposition can be observed. Solidified melt layers are visible on the sidewalls at the hole bottom, an indication for high
fluences. Nevertheless, in case of atmospheric pressure, forward drilling already had stopped before 10,000 pulses were
reached, while it would have continued for vacuum conditions, see graph in Fig. 3.

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pressure conditions, as shown in Fig. 3(a) for up to 30,000 pulses at a pulse energy of 125 !J. Regarding the shape
evolution, the formation of bulges and indents on the sidewalls occurs in this phase, but also a change in drilling
direction away from the direction of the incident laser beam and possibly the appearance of multiple hole ends/tips. The
additional growth in transverse direction is particularly dominant during the intermediate periods of constant depth.
Due to the statistical changes in the depth development, the exact hole depth at a particular time cannot be predicted and
furthermore, there is no correlation to the process parameters, like ambient pressure, as in the first process phase. See for
example the depth after ca. 2,000 pulses in comparison to the situation at ca. 6,000 pulses in Fig. 3(a). In the first case,
the hole depth at this stage increases for decreasing pressure, meaning the largest depth is reached at 10-2 mbar, while
1000 mbar exhibits the lowest depth. In the second case, at approximately 6,000 pulses, the situation changed in such a
way, that 1 mbar features the largest depth, this is followed by 10-2 mbar and then 1000 mbar, leaving the lowest depth
for a pressure of 100 mbar.

(a)

(b)

700

1200
1100
1000
900

600500-

..1-

E 800

- 400 -

t 300-

2 700
s 600

200-

400
300
200

Sp-

500

- 1000 mbar
- 100 mbar

- 1 mbar

100

- 1E-2 mbar
5

15

10

20

25

30

100
o

- 1000 mbar
- 100 mbar

- 1 mbar

- 1 E -2 mbar
1

Number of pulses [ x 1000 ]

200
400
600
Number of pulses [ x 1000 ]

800

Figure 3. Development of the hole depth for a pulse energy of 125 !J. (a) Second process phase up to 30,000 pulses.
(b) Observations up to 800,000 pulses show an extended drilling process for vacuum conditions (10 -2 mbar).

In Fig. 3(a) the end of the drilling process under atmospheric conditions is visible at approximately 7,000 pulses, which
is a typical value in agreement with previous observations10. In contrast, forward drilling at reduced pressure always
continues for a higher number of pulses, all the more the lower the ambient pressure. Again, we observe this
phenomenon for all pulse energies under investigation, but it becomes more distinct with increasing pulse energy. Tab. 2
summarizes the number of pulses (Nfinal) till a constant hole depth (dfinal) is reached for a pulse energy of 125 !J.
Table 2. The final depth and number of pulses to reach this depth increases for reduced pressure, notably for 10-2 mbar.
Pressure p

Final hole depth dfinal

Number of pulses Nfinal

1000 mbar

515 !m

7,000

100 mbar

535 !m

14,000

1 mbar

685 !m

55,000

10-2 mbar

> 1200 !m

> 800,000

It is especially remarkable, that for a pressure reduction to 1 mbar Nfinal only increases by a factor of 3 compared to
atmospheric pressure, but for a further pressure decrease to 10-2 mbar Nfinal rises by two orders of magnitude. Fig. 3(b)
shows the depth development at 125 !J pulse energy for up to 800,000 pulses, which for a pressure of 10-2 mbar mostly
consists of long periods of constant depth (several ten thousand to hundred thousand pulses) alternating with shorter

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periods of increasing depth (several thousand to ten thousand pulses). The average ablation rate in the periods of depth
increase still reaches an average of 0.1 !m per pulse at approximately 16,000 pulses, but decreases from period to period
and for example drops to merely 0.02 !m per pulse at ca. 450,000 pulses.
1000 mbar 100 mbar

1 mbar

102 mbar

'JI
200 pm

Figure 4. Final hole shape at the end of the drilling process for a pulse energy of 125 !J.

The final shape of the holes is shown in Fig. 4. The holes at 1000 mbar and 100 mbar show in principal a similar final
shape, although the number of pulses to reach this final state is increased for the lower pressure. For a further pressure
reduction the hole silhouette changes significantly. At 1 mbar ambient pressure, the final depth is increased by about
25% and in addition the lowest part of the hole features several branches, that each form separate additional tips. This
branching effect is enhanced, when the depth further increases (by about 100%) at a pressure reduction to 10-2 mbar. In
this case, it spans the complete lower half of the hole, so that the hole shape resembles a narrow tree. This also means
that the branching effect predominantly occurs in the extended part of the hole, which is formed during the expanded
depth development compared to low vacuum or even atmospheric conditions. Our observations also show, that the
branches are formed separately, one after the other. In consequence ablation only takes place in one direction at a time,
until the conditions inside the hole change and ablation resumes at another place and eventually drilling in forward
direction continues. As Fig. 4 only shows the silhouette of the hole, the complete three-dimensional shape is somehow
obscured. This leads to the impression, that the hole diameter is larger in the lower part of the hole (or the hole shape
looks like an inverted bottle), especially for 10-2 mbar. Actually, we believe, that the individual side-branches are still
separated, as for example the topmost one on the left side of the hole at 10-2 mbar. Therefore, the central inner capillary
of the hole may remain narrow also in the lower part of the hole. This does not exclude, that some larger cavities may
have formed at certain depths.
Number of pulses [ x 1000 ]

160

260

280

200 pm

Figure 5. Exemplary development of the hole shape at 10-2 mbar for one step of depth-increase between 160,000 and
280,000 pulses. The red part of the hole is formed during the period of constant depth, while the green part shapes
during the following period of depth increase.

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In Fig. 5, an example for the hole shape evolution during one of the pronounced intermediate periods of constant depth
and the following much shorter period of depth increase for a pressure of 10-2 mbar at 125 !J pulse energy is shown, i.e.
the hole development between 160,000 and 280,000 pulses. This example starts at 160,000 pulses, which means the hole
already reached a depth of about 1 mm and has undergone some of the growth periods which lead to the branching in the
lower half. During the next 100,000 pulses, no forward drilling can be observed and the depth stays constant, which
means the pulse energy that reaches the lowest tip of the hole is insufficient for further ablation or coupling of the pulse
energy to the material at the tip of the hole is so weak, that no ablation in forward direction is caused. Nevertheless,
ablation can still be observed along the sidewalls of the complete lower half of the hole. The changes in the hole shape
after 160,000 pulses are marked in red in Fig. 5. Additional branches, bulges and side indents have been formed. In
addition, also the inner structure of the hole will have changed. This can be attributed to the successive ablation of edges,
ridges and similar structures that formerly caused a sidewards deflection or scattering of the beam at a certain position. In
consequence, we observe, that the formation of a new side branch or indent stops after a certain time and then ablation
resumes at another position forming another bulge. But also the diameter and shape of the inner capillary at the hole tip
may be changed, eventually leading to better energy coupling, for example by flattening of the tip. In the end, drilling
can continue in forward direction, as marked by the green part in Fig. 5, and during this period of forward drilling, no
ablation is observable along the sidewalls of the already existing upper part of the hole.
Coming back to the final hole shape in Fig. 4, we also observe a difference in the entrance diameter for different pressure
conditions. At atmospheric pressure, the entrance diameter is rather large and shows a pronounced taper. In contrast,
drilling at lower ambient pressure (for 100 mbar and below) reduces the entrance diameter and the adjacent taper. In
agreement with previous observations2, we attribute this effect to a nonlinear interaction of the ultrashort laser pulses
with the ambient gas and a resulting broadening of the intensity distribution in the focus. When the pressure and hence
the density of the gas is decreased, this nonlinear interaction is reduced and does not affect the hole shape. Since the
beam broadening only leads to a weak increase of the fluence at the outside margin of the beam, the effect takes several
hundred to thousand pulses to evolve and thus is not visible at the beginning of the drilling process in Fig. 2(b).
3.3 Internal structure of the holes
A comparison of the internal structure of two holes, one drilled at an ambient pressure of 1000 mbar and the other one at
10-2 mbar, on the basis of cross section images at 10,000 pulses for each is presented in Fig. 6. With the help of these
images we are going to analyze the role of particle redeposition on the drilling behavior. As shown in Fig. 6(a) for a
pressure of 1000 mbar, large agglomerations of particles form a cloud or cotton like structure at the hole entrance, i.e. the
first 100 !m of the hole. These particle clusters also cover the sidewalls of the middle of the hole, at a depth of 200 !m
to 300 !m, still with the same thickness and density. Since these structures extend into the middle of the hole they have
to be stable against ablation by subsequent pulses. This signifies that passing pulses cause only a minor degree of
ablation, which can be attributed to the roughness and high surface area of the debris clouds, and in addition the particles
that are ablated from the agglomerations may be replaced to the same amount by fresh redepositions. The density of
debris is reduced for larger depths, but still at the tip of the hole small particles and particle agglomerations cover the
sidewalls. For a pressure of 10-2 mbar, as shown in Fig. 6(b), the situation at the hole entrance is comparable to 1000
mbar with a thick layer of cloud like particle agglomerations. In contrast to higher ambient pressure, the density of debris
strongly decreases with increasing depth in this case and already at a depth of about 200 !m particle redeposition on the
sidewalls nearly disappeared leaving a clean capillary in the middle part of the hole. Also at the hole tip, no particle
redeposition can be observed. Solidified melt layers are visible on the sidewalls at the hole bottom, an indication for high
fluences. Nevertheless, in case of atmospheric pressure, forward drilling already had stopped before 10,000 pulses were
reached, while it would have continued for vacuum conditions, see graph in Fig. 3.

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(a) p = 1000 mbar

(b) p = 10 -2 mbar

Figure 6. Scanning electron microscopy images of hole cross sections after 10,000 pulses show large particle
agglomerations within the capillary at atmospheric pressure, while vacuum conditions lead to nearly no particle
depositions below the hole entrance.

Unfortunately, we are not able to present cross section images at a higher number of pulses since the crack does not split
the hole anymore, but rather affects the outer rim due to the weakening of the material caused by the extended branches
along the lower part of the hole.
From the cross section images a direct effect of the ambient pressure on the flow of ablation particles can be deduced.
For reduced pressure, the mean free path of the particles is enlarged and they can escape the hole capillary more
efficiently, which only leads to a particle deposition at the hole entrance. In case of atmospheric pressure, redeposition of
particles already takes place close to the spot of ablation, i.e. also at the tip of the hole. Furthermore, we observed that
continuous particle deposition by subsequent pulses leads to aggregation of particles in large cloud or cotton like layers,
which form on the sidewalls of the hole although it is further irradiated. These agglomerations lead to very rough inner
walls of the hole and simultaneously decrease the inner diameter. In our opinion, they are capable of scattering a large
amount of pulse energy, so that the part of the pulse energy that reaches the bottom of the hole is insufficient for further
ablation. On the other hand, at 10-2 mbar, the pulses can propagate through a clean capillary and high fluences can be
maintained at the hole bottom, as can be seen by the significant generation of melt at the hole tip. In contrast the effect of
particle agglomerations on the pulse propagation at the hole entrance is limited, since the hole still has a large diameter at
this part. Altogether, the reduced particle aggregations at reduced pressure enable a continuation of the drilling process
for a significantly higher number of pulses leading to much deeper holes.
Notwithstanding, we observe the same imperfections of the hole for both pressure conditions. Especially, hole bending,
bulges and indents on the wall exist in regions where particle deposition is negligible in case of 10-2 mbar. Hence, we
conclude that deflection of the pulse on the sidewalls plays a considerably more important role for the formation of
imperfections than scattering at particle agglomerations.

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4. CONCLUSION
Our study shows the first experimental observation of the hole shape evolution for percussion drilling of opaque
materials with ultrashort laser pulses at different ambient pressures. For reduced pressure, we observed an increased
ablation rate during the initial process phase when the pressure is reduced. The principal hole shape is maintained under
all conditions. The number of pulses to reach the final hole depth increases with decreasing ambient pressure. This effect
is especially distinct for a pressure of 10-2 mbar, where the final hole depth is significantly extended compared to
atmospheric pressure conditions. The lower part of the hole also shows a different shape, dominated by branching which
results in a treetop-like structure.
Cross-sections of the holes revealed that particle redeposition plays a major role in the change of the drilling behavior. At
reduced pressure, the debris inside the hole, especially in the middle and lower part, is significantly reduced.
Accordingly, we suppose lower losses and scattering for the pulse propagation inside the capillary, which finally leads to
larger achievable depths. Simultaneously, we conclude that deviations in the propagation direction which then lead to the
branch-like shape are induced by reflections on side-wall imperfections rather than particle deposits.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to acknowledge financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, Leibniz program) and
the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Sren Richter was supported by the Hans L. Merkle Stiftung. We would like to thank
F. Heisler for his help in sample preparation.

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