Effect of metal surface morphology on nano-structured
patterns induced by a femtosecond laser pulse and its
experimental verification
Haiying Song (宋海英), Shengwang Tan (谭胜旺), Elshaimaa M. Emara (诗 梦),
Yanjie Zhang (张艳杰), Shibing Liu (刘世炳)*, Yao Li (李 瑶), and Haiyun Liu (刘海云)
Strong-Field and Ultrafast Photonics Lab, Institute of Laser Engineering,
Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
*Corresponding author: sbliu@bjut.edu.cn
Received May 2, 2018; accepted May 21, 2018; posted online June 29, 2018
The effect of material surface morphology on the periodic subwavelength of nano-structures induced by a femto-
second (fs) laser was investigated systematically from the initial surface roughness, the different scratches, the
pre-formed ripples, and the “layer-carving” technology experiments. The results of the comparative experiments
indicate that the initial surface conditions of the target surface have no obvious effects on the spatial structured
periods (SSPs) and the ripple orientation of the periodic nano-structures induced by a fs laser, which agreed well
with the foretold present surface two-plasmon resonance (STPR) model. Furthermore, different shapes of nano-
grids with high regularity and uniformity were obtained by fs-laser fabrication.
OCIS codes: 320.2250, 240.5770, 220.4241, 350.3390.
doi: 10.3788/COL201816.073202.
Ultrafast laser–matter interactions in an extremely short
temporal domain are of wide interest for both fundamental
and applied research. As this field is a rapidly developed
branch over the last decade, the unique properties of
the characteristic nano-structures induced by a femtosec-
ond (fs) pulse laser on solid surfaces have attracted much
attention from correlative researchers due to the wide va-
riety of applications in nano-optics
[1–3]
, material physics
[4,5]
,
surface engineering
[6–8]
, fabrication of electronic devices
[9–11]
,
etc. Thus, it is of great importance to understand the for-
mation process of fs-laser-induced periodic subwavelength
structures on solid surfaces, for the reason that it can en-
able us to control the structured patterns to reveal new
aspects of their underlying peculiar functions
[6,7]
. In the
formation mechanism, the various interpretations are
proposed, such as the interference between a surface plas-
mon and incident laser
[6,12,13]
, surface plasmon effects
[14–16]
,
initial surface roughness
[17–19]
, kinds of heating
[20]
,andreso-
nant Mie scattering
[21,22]
, which are intended to interpret the
dynamic process of the periodic ripples induced by a fs laser.
Many of the corresponding experiments about processing
parameters were reported to discuss their effects on subwa-
velength formation, including the laser wavelength
[23,24]
,
the laser fluence
[24–26]
, the pulse number
[12,27]
(or the laser
scanning speed
[23,28]
), the polarization
[26,29,30]
, the laser inci-
dent angle
[30,31]
, and processing environments
[10,32]
.
Recently, we proposed surface two-plasmo n resonance
(STPR) generated in the ultrafast interaction of a fs-laser
pulse with surface plasmon produced on a target surface
that gives birth to periodic subwavelength ripple struc-
tures
[33]
. The analytic formula regarding the spatial struc-
tured periods (SSPs) of the ripples was formulated,
indicating that the SSPs of self-formed gratings strongly
depend on the laser wavelength and the laser fluence. Also,
some experiments about the corresponding processing
parameters have been enacted, proving the veracity and
effectiveness of the STPR model. Among these experi-
ments, we found that the bi-direction scanning method
(which is the back and forth scanning way) with some
overlapped areas between the two scanning beams can
make an aesthetically pleasing joint
[23]
, so this draws inter-
est to the research of the surfac e roughness effects on the
induced periodic nano-structures. As for the actual engi-
neering application, the devices’ surfaces cannot be very
smooth or fine polished, so the surface morphology is
an important factor for the nano-structures’ fabrication
in the surface engineering field.
Some reports have described effects of the initial surface
roughness on the surface ripples formation. Brueck et al.
[34]
first investigated the effects mechanism of the surface
roughness; they inferred that the surface-plasma wave
(SPW) is excited by surface-roughness-induced scattering
from the incident field, and the growth of periodic ripple
structures promoted by the spatial modulation of the op-
tical intensity resulting from the interference between the
incident wave and the SPW. Some experiments were also
performed to discuss the problem, such as the effects of sur-
face roughening to the fs-laser-induced ripples formation
that were observed on single crystal 4H-SiC by Tomita
et al.
[17]
, and the results show that the coarse ripples formed
are not affected by the initial roughness of irradiated ma-
terials, while the fine ripples are critically dependent on the
surface roughness. They believed that the non-uniform
photo-excited carrier distribution (or the non-uniform
free electron density) due to the initial surface roughness
plays a significant role for fine ripple formation. Another
COL 16(7), 073202(2018) CHINESE OPTICS LETTERS July 10, 2018
1671-7694/2018/073202(4) 073202-1 © 2018 Chinese Optics Letters