Abstract
The formation of a monocrystalline silicon needle by picosecond optical vortex pulse illumination was demonstrated for the first time in this study. The dynamics of this silicon needle formation was further revealed by employing an ultrahigh-speed camera. The melted silicon was collected through picosecond pulse deposition to the dark core of the optical vortex, forming the silicon needle on a submicrosecond time scale. The needle was composed of monocrystalline silicon with the same lattice index (100) as that of the silicon substrate, and had a height of approximately 14 μm and a thickness of approximately 3 μm. Overlaid vortex pulses allowed the needle to be shaped with a height of approximately 40 μm without any changes to the crystalline properties. Such a monocrystalline silicon needle can be applied to devices in many fields, such as core–shell structures for silicon photonics and photovoltaic devices as well as nano- or microelectromechanical systems.
Highlights
The formation of a monocrystalline silicon needle by picosecond optical vortex pulse illumination was demonstrated for the first time in this study
Optical vortices[1,2,3], carrying an annular intensity profile and an orbital angular momentum arising from a helical wavefront, have provided a variety of research opportunities, such as optical manipulation[4,5], super-resolution microscopes that function beyond the diffraction limit[6,7], space-division multiplexing optical telecommunications[8,9], and quantum information[10,11]
We report on the first demonstration concerning the fabrication of a monocrystalline silicon needle with a nanoscale tip by illumination with a picosecond optical vortex pulse
Summary
The formation of a monocrystalline silicon needle by picosecond optical vortex pulse illumination was demonstrated for the first time in this study. Overlaid vortex pulses allowed the needle to be shaped with a height of approximately 40 μm without any changes to the crystalline properties Such a monocrystalline silicon needle can be applied to devices in many fields, such as core–shell structures for silicon photonics and photovoltaic devices as well as nano- or microelectromechanical systems. We have proposed a method for materials processing in which optical vortices force a metal to form structured materials, including nanoneedles[12,13] and chiral structures[14,15,16], owing to orbital angular momentum transfer effects This technique of forming structured metallic materials by the optical vortex illumination of a metal target will allow us to improve the time and cost efficiencies of fabricating advanced plasmonic devices. Several overlaid vortex pulses shaped the needle with a height of approximately 40 μ m
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