Femtosecond pulsed lasers have been widely used over the past decades due to their capability to fabricate precise patterns at the micro- and nano- lengths scales. A key issue for efficient material processing is the determination of the laser parameters used in the experimental set ups. Despite a systematic investigation that has been performed to highlight the impact of every parameter independently, little attention has been drawn on the role of the substrate material on which the irradiated solid is placed. In this work, the influence of the substrate is emphasised for films of various thicknesses which demonstrates that both the optical and thermophysical properties of the substrate affect the thermal fingerprint on the irradiated film while the impact is manifested to be higher at smaller film sizes. Two representative materials, silicon and fused silica have been selected as typical substrates for thin films of different optical and thermophysical behaviour (gold and nickel) and the thermal response and damage thresholds are evaluated for the irradiated solids. The pronounced influence of the substrate is aimed to pave the way for new and more optimised designs of laser-based fabrication set ups and processing schemes.
Rippled area formed by surface plasmon polaritons upon femtosecond laser double-pulse irradiation of silicon: the role of carrier generation and relaxation processes
Raman spectroscopic characterization of crater walls formed upon single-shot high energy femtosecond laser irradiation of dimethacrylate polymer doped with plasmonic gold nanorods
We have demonstrated the fabrication and characterization of 2D liquid-based multimode optical waveguide structures over a Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) material-based chip. Fabrication of two separate microstructures, one with a width of 14 microns and a depth of 27 microns while the other with a width as well as depth of 110 microns, was achieved by the femtosecond laser micromachining process. The dye solution is passed through the microstructure from one end to the other; wherein the dye solution acts as the core while PDMS and air act as the cladding medium. The femtosecond laser micromachi…
Photoluminescence of Femtosecond Laser-irradiated Silicon Carbide
RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau（凯泽斯劳滕-兰道莱布尼茨技术大学）；Universität des Saarlandes（萨尔兰州立大学）；Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST)（卢森堡科学与技术研究所）；University of Luxembourg（卢森堡大学）；Institut für Oberflächen- und Schichttechnik GmbH（表面与薄膜技术研究所有限公司）
Laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSSs) on various materials have been extensively investigated because of their wide applications. The combination of different materials allows for greater freedom in tailoring their functions and achieving responses not possible in a homogeneous material. By utilizing a femtosecond (fs) laser to irradiate the Fe-doped Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone (PVP) composite film, highly regular ultrafine nanogratings (U-nanogratings) with a period as small as 35.0 ($\pm$ 2.0) nm can be self-organized on the surface with extremely high efficiency. The period of the U-…
Understanding the mechanisms and controlling the possibilities of surface nanostructuring is of crucial interest from fundamental and practical perspectives. Here we report a direct experimental observation of laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) formed near a predesigned gold step edge following single-pulse femtosecond laser irradiation. A hybrid atomistic-continuum model fully supports experimental observations. We identify two key components of single-pulse LIPSS formation: excitation of surface plasmon polaritons and material reorganization. Our results lay the foundation tow…
Hybrid Femtosecond Laser and Ion-Implantation Processing for Controlled, Deep, High-Efficiency Ablation in Fused Silica
Instituto de Optica Daza de Valdes (IO), CSIC（西班牙科学研究中心光学研究所）；HiLASE Centre, FZU - Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences（捷克科学院物理研究所 HiLASE 中心）；Universidad Autónoma de Madrid（马德里自治大学）；Centro de Microanálisis de Materiales (CMAM), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid（马德里自治大学材料微分析中心）；FZU - Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences（捷克科学院物理研究所）
Exposure of metal surfaces to multiple ultrashort laser pulses under certain conditions leads to the formation of well-defined periodic surface structures. We show how the period of such structures in steel can be tuned over a wide range by controlling the complex interaction mechanisms triggered in the material. Amongst the different irradiation parameters that influence the properties of the induced structures, the angle of incidence of the laser beam occupies a prominent role. We present an experimental and theoretical investigation of this angle dependence in steel upon irradiation with la…
We investigate photoinization, energy deposition, plasma formation and the ultrafast optical breakdown in crystalline silicon irradiated by intense near-infrared laser pulses with pulse duration $τ\le $ 100 fs. The occurrence of high-intensity breakdown was established by the sudden increase of the absorbed laser energy inside the bulk, which corresponds to threshold energy fluence $Φ_{th} > $ 1 J/cm$^2$. The optical breakdown is accompanied by severe spectral broadening of the transmitted pulse. For the studied irradiation conditions, we find that the threshold fluence increases linearly with…
Irradiation with an ultrashort laser pulse can completely destroy the magnetic order of ferromagnetic thin films on the femtosecond timescale. This phenomenon holds great potential for ultrafast spintronics and information processing and is an active field of research. It is still an open question if the angular momentum of light can support this effect. While it has been shown that the spin of light only has a negligible influence, we experimentally demonstrate the influence of ultrashort laser pulses with orbital angular momentum (OAM) on the magnetization dynamics of a thin nickel film. Our…
Ultra-fast femtosecond (fs) lasers provide a unique technological opportunity to precisely and efficiently micromachine materials with minimal thermal damage owing to the reduced heat transfer into the bulk of the work material offered by short pulse duration, high laser intensity and focused optical energy delivered on a timescale shorter than the rate of thermal diffusion into the surrounding area of a beam foci. There is an increasing demand to further develop the fs machining technology to improve the machining quality, minimize the total machining time and increase the flexibility of mach…
The employment of ultrashort laser sources at the mid-IR spectral region for transparent materials is designed to open new routes for laser patterning and a wealth of exciting applications in optics and photonics. To elucidate the material response to irradiation with mid-IR laser sources, a consistent analysis of the interaction of long wavelength femtosecond pulses with dielectric materials is presented. The influence of the pulse duration is, in particularly, emphasized towards specifying the laser parameters for which photoionization and impact ionization are important. Simulations results…
We present a new approach to femtosecond direct laser writing lithography to pattern nanocavities in ferromagnetic thin films. To demonstrate the concept we irradiated 300~nm thin nickel films by single intense femtosecond laser pulses through the glass substrate and created complex surface landscapes at the nickel-air interface. Using a fluence above the ablation threshold the process is destructive and irradiation leads to the formation of 200~nm thin flakes of nickel around the ablation crater as seen by electron microscopy. By progressively lowering the peak laser fluence, slightly below t…
Irradiation of solids with ultrashort pulses using laser sources in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectral region is a yet predominantly unexplored field that opens broad possibilities for efficient and precise surface texturing for a wide range of applications. In the present work, we investigate both experimentally and theoretically the impact of laser sources on the generation of surface modification related effects and on the subsequent surface patterning of metallic and semiconducting materials. Through a parametric study we correlate the mid-IR pulsed laser parameters with the onset of mater…
Energy carrier evolution is crucial for material performance. Ultrafast microscopy has been widely applied to visualize the spatiotemporal evolution of energy carriers. However, direct imaging of small amounts of energy carriers on nanoscale remains difficult due to extremely weak transient signals. Here we present a method for ultrasensitive and high-throughput imaging of energy carrier evolution in space and time. This method combines femtosecond pump-probe techniques with interferometric scattering microscopy (iSCAT), named Femto-iSCAT. The interferometric principle and unique spatially-mod…
Probing the formation of femtosecond laser-induced periodic surface structures on silica films by ultrafast small-angle X-ray scattering
University of Duisburg-Essen（杜伊斯堡-埃森大学）；Bentley Systems, Incorporated（宾利系统公司）；European XFEL（欧洲自由电子激光实验室）；Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM)（联邦材料研究与测试研究所）；Warsaw University of Technology（华沙理工大学）；Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences（波兰科学院物理研究所）；SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory（斯坦福直线加速器中心）
