Micropillar compression response of femtosecond laser-cut single crystal Cu and proton irradiated Cu

Femtosecond laser cutting has been used to fabricate micro- and mesoscale specimens for mechanical testing, but the impact on mechanical properties has not been fully evaluated. Micropillars of various sizes were fabricated in a single crystal Cu specimen and Cu irradiated to 1.4 peak displacements per atom using a femtosecond laser cutting system followed by focused ion beam milling to a final dimension of 7 μm × 7 μm × 12 μm. Microcompression testing showed that removing 5 μm of material from the laser cut surface in both specimens resulted in similar behavior to purely focused ion beam milled micropillars.