Abstract
Engineering material properties is key for development of smart materials and next generation nanodevices. This requires nanoscale spatial precision and control to fabricate structures/defects. Lithographic techniques are widely used for nanostructuring in which a geometric pattern on a mask is transferred to a resist by photons or charged particles and subsequently engraved on the substrate. However, direct mask-less fabrication has only been possible with electron and ion beams. That is because light has an inherent disadvantage; the diffraction limit makes it difficult to interact with matter on dimensions smaller than the wavelength of light. Here we demonstrate spatially controlled formation of nanocones on a silicon surface with a positional precision of 50 nm using femtosecond laser ablation comprising a superposition of optical vector vortex and Gaussian beams. Such control and precision opens new opportunities for nano-printing of materials using techniques such as laser-induced forward transfer and in general broadens the scope of laser processing of materials.
Highlights
Engineering material properties is key for development of smart materials and generation nanodevices
There was no clear signature of the chirality-control fabrication of nanocones produced by femtosecond pulses
There are some similarities between our laser processing technique and stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy/ lithography in surpassing the diffraction barrier
Summary
Engineering material properties is key for development of smart materials and generation nanodevices. Exploiting near threshold ablation, feature dimensions far below the diffraction limit were demonstrated[11,12] In such a threshold based material response, the ablation features were found not to be dependent on the nonlinear process responsible for light absorption but rather correspond to a one-to-one mapping of the beam profile at threshold intensity. Nanoholes14,15, nanocones16–19, nanodots[5] and self-organized periodic nano-ripple patterns[20,21,22] were fabricated in different materials either by ablation or material modification using above threshold laser pulse energies Another non-contact direct laser-write technique that is widely used in nano-printing is Laser Induced Froward Transfer (LIFT) to “drop and place” small volumes of complex materials into user-defined, high-resolution patterns[23,24]. The spatial resolution one could achieve in placing individual droplets is few hundreds of nanometers
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