Electrostrictive Mechanism of Nanostructure Formation at Solid Surfaces Irradiated by Femtosecond Laser Pulses.

Oleg R Pavlyniuk,Vitaly V Datsyuk

doi:10.1186/s11671-015-1224-5

Abstract

The significance of the mechanical pressure of light in creation of laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSSs) is investigated. Distributions of the electrically induced normal pressure and tangential stress at the illuminated solid surface, as well as the field of volume electrostrictive forces, are calculated taking into account surface plasmon polariton (SPP) excitation. Based on these calculations, we predict surface destruction and structure formation due to inelastic deformations during single femtosecond pulses. The calculated fields of the electromagnetic forces are found to agree well with the experimental ripple structures. We thus conclude that the electrostrictive forces can explain the origin of the periodic ripple structures.

Highlights

Femtosecond laser-pulse interaction with matter can lead to formation of laser-induced periodic surface structures [1,2,3]
We applied the classical electromagnetic theory both to determine the properties of the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) and to calculate the force acting on a metal surface
Surface Plasmon Polaritons In most cases, the ripples were observed to be perpendicular to the electric field vector [1,2,3, 6, 11,12,13,14]

Summary

Introduction

Femtosecond laser-pulse interaction with matter can lead to formation of laser-induced periodic surface structures [1,2,3]. Various applications of the laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSSs) have been proposed. They can be used for building microfluidic channels, controlling over laser marking and changing the color of materials [4, 5], overcoming the diffraction limit in laser nanomachining [6], modifying local electrical properties, improving the efficiency of solar cells [7], grating production, and optical data storage [8]. Two types of basic formation mechanisms explained the observed structures. The second non-resonant mechanism was related with thermal consequences of laser irradiation of the target, for example, capillary waves formed in the melted layer [15]

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