Microengineering techniques for fabricating planar foils for use in laser targets

The current techniques for fabricating planar laser targets and their components depend heavily on very accurate computer-controlled lathes, diamond turning and milling processes. The development of these processes has formed a science in themself, with novel techniques being developed continuously to keep up with the experimentalist's requirements, Unfortunately, with these techniques, the element of mass-production is lost because each component is made individually. Hence, processes which produce multiple components simultaneously become attractive, resulting in a reduction in both cost and time. Within the microelectronics industry, mass-production is essential and the processes adopted to achieve this have been developed and optimised for microfabrication.