The fluence threshold of femtosecond laser blackening of metals: The effect of laser-induced ripples

Abstract

With the primary controlling factor of the laser fluence, we have investigated femtosecond laser blackening of stainless steel, brass, and aluminum in visible light range. In general, low reflectance about 5% can be achieved in appropriate ranges of laser fluences for all the treated metal surfaces. Significantly, towards stainless steel and brass a fluence threshold of blackening emerges unusually: a dramatic reflectance decline occurs in a specific, narrow fluence range. In contrast, towards aluminum the reflectance declines steadily over a wide fluence range instead of the threshold-like behavior from steel and brass. The morphological characteristics and corresponding reflectance spectra of the treated surfaces indicates that the blackening threshold of stainless steel and brass corresponds to the fluence threshold of laser-induced subwavelength ripples. Such periodic ripples growing rapidly near ablation threshold absorb visible light efficiently through grating coupling and cavity trapping promoted by surface plasmon polaritons. Whereas, for aluminum, with fluence increasing the looming ripples are greatly suppressed by re-deposited nanoparticle aggregates that present intrinsic colors other than black, and until the formation of large scale “ravines” provided with strong light-trapping, sufficient blackening is achieved. In short, there are different fluence dependencies for femtosecond laser blackening of metals, and the specific blackening fluence threshold for certain metals in the visible range originates in the definite fluence threshold of femtosecond laser-induced ripples.