TY - JOUR A1 - Peláez, R.J. A1 - Rebollar, E. A1 - Serna, R. A1 - Acosta-Zepeda, C. A1 - Saavedra, P. A1 - Bonse, Jörn A1 - Haro-Poniatowski, E. T1 - Nanosecond laser-induced interference grating formation on silicon T2 - Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics N2 - The formation of gratings on the surface of a silicon wafer by nanosecond laser irradiation through a phase mask using an ArF laser emitting at 193 nm is studied. The phase mask along with some focusing optics is capable to generate via interference a periodic intensity distribution, which can be used for surface patterning. The surface patterning strongly depends on the laser energy density and on the number of pulses, as revealed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results show that irradiation even with a single laser pulse produces periodic depth modulations on the surface. The spatial surface modulation is in the micrometer (1.7 µm) range while the depth modulation is in the nanometer regime (1–20 nm). With an increasing number of pulses (1–100), the depth modulation amplitude increases smoothly. Increasing the number of pulses further results in the progressive destruction of the grating, vanishing completely after ~5000 pulses. This evolution is also monitored in situ by measuring the intensity of the first order-diffracted probe beam and the behavior is in accordance with what is observed by AFM. Finally, we qualitatively explain the results invoking thermally induced effects in the melted Si: these physical processes involved are probably thermocapillary and/or Marangoni effects inducing material displacement as the surface melts. PB - IOP Publishing CY - Bristol, UK KW - Nanosecond laser irradiation KW - Silicon KW - Surface modification KW - Phase mask KW - Grating PY - 2019 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/47619 AN - OPUS4-47619 UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6463/ab0c5f SN - 1361-6463 SN - 0022-3727 VL - 52 IS - 22 SP - 225302, 1 EP - 10 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany