Fabrication of Nanostructures by Laser Optical Focusing

Abstract

Surface structures have a broad application prospects, because the nanostructure or microstructure can improve the tribological properties. Laser processing has been widely used for microstructures due to the excellent controllability and universality and the precision of this method can be significantly increased by optical focusing. However, it is difficult to prepare nanometer scale material as focusing media. Here, a self-assembled monolayer of silica microspheres with diameter of about 900nm was formed on a bearing steel substrate and could be used as the focusing media. Large-area nanoholes were fabricated using overlapping pulses obtained through laser beam scanning. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and profilometer characterized the shape and dimension of nanopatterns. Finally, the mechanisms of the formation of such structures depending on the number of laser pulses applied were discussed.