TY - BOOK A1 - Stoian, R. A1 - Bonse, Jörn T1 - Ultrafast Laser Nanostructuring — The Pursuit of Extreme Scales N2 - Long seen as “a solution seeking a problem,” laser pulses are nowadays – more than 60 years after their first practical demonstration – paramount in shaping and structuring matter. Harnessing their capabilities to direct intense beams of light, the number of scientific and technological developments and daily-life applications is continuously increasing. Today, the presence of lasers is ubiquitous in all sites of scientific and technological interest, from the most advanced research laboratories to industrial factories and medical hospitals. The directionality of the laser beam determines equally a local character on lightmatter interaction and as such a local modification to a material target. Furthermore, the coherence of laser radiation enables near-field or far-field scattering and interference effects that widen significantly the capabilities of controlling and tracking laser-matter interactions in space and time. Already with the advent of lasers, powerful beams of light have been directed at solid materials for a variety of purposes, making this application as old as the laser itself. The roots of the major applications for laser structuring were developed already in the 1960s, setting the base of both theoretical and experimental studies on laser ablation, with the number of publications expanding explosively during the next decades. Within this dynamic context, laser processing of materials experienced an impressive development over the years. Laser processing means specifically the capability to structure and tailor a material on its surface or even within its volume, rendering new functions and properties that are impacting the mechanical, electrical, or optical characteristics of the material. These properties are scaledependent, generating thus over the years an equally impressive quest for spatial or temporal resolution. Therefore, the developments in laser engineering with major breakthroughs, notably in pulse duration and power, always closely accompanied the efforts in material structuring with two milestones in sight: (1) yield and (2) resolution. Every step in shrinking the laser pulse duration led to a subsequent strong-impact development in process precision – particularly when the ultrashort pulse durations surpassed the fundamental electron-phonon relaxation times. Thus, minimizing heat diffusion, the advent of pulses with duration smaller than molecular or lattice vibration times has managed to confine the spatial resolution to the optical diffraction limit and sometimes even beyond. The nanoscale was already in sight at the turn of the millennium. An important question may be raised now; is there any fundamental limit in the processing resolution, a barrier defined by the intrinsic properties of light and matter? The answer has an inherently multidisciplinary nature, following the conversion of free-propagating electromagnetic radiation into material-confined energy potentially usable to drive or transform matter, and will be the focus of the present book. Relying on the experience and expertise of the leading researchers in the field, the present book intends to explore the current efforts in achieving laser processing resolution beyond the diffraction limit, laying down a perspective towards extreme laser nanostructuring. Following the most recent advances and developments, it puts forward a concept of extreme processing scales enabled by optical pulses that are able to bypass diffraction limits and achieve structuring characteristic scales beyond 100 nm. This objective can be achieved by a comprehensive understanding on how light can change matter and how, in turn, matter can change light, allowing jointly for actively controlling light and material processes. In order to give an extended perspective on the current state-of-the-art in the field of precision laser structuring, the book is divided into three main parts. The first part of the book (Part I: Fundamental Processes) offers a perspective into the fundamentals of laser-matter interaction on extreme spatial scales, with a description of the most advanced modeling efforts in understanding energy deposition in matter, a plethora of material-relaxation pathways, as well as advanced concepts for probing and observing matter in motion. Roadmaps for energy localization will be developed, and the atomistic perspective of laser ablation visualized. Theoretical modelling enables in-depth insights on ultrafast quantum processes at the nanoscale. Laser-driven self-organization at surfaces will be dissected regarding the question of how light drives material periodic patterns down to the nanoscale, explored and transmitted to its ultimate limits of an atomic printer, and immediately complemented by the unprecedented capabilities of ultrafast in-situ observation approaches for tracking the laser-induced material response with extreme spatial and temporal resolution. In the second part of the book (Part II: Concepts of Extreme Nanostructuring), distinct concepts will be developed and explored that allow confinement of light and harnessing of a material response restricted to nano- or mesoscopic scales at surfaces or in the volume of irradiated materials. A special focus will be on optical near-field related approaches for localizing light on scales even below the optical diffraction limit and plasmonic printing. Spatial and temporal beam-shaping and tailored interference techniques are discussed in the context of ultrashort laser pulses, and insights into some extreme states of matter realized by the tight confinement of laser energy are presented. The ultimate limits of writing waveguides in the bulk of dielectrics and for manifesting 3D-nanolithography are elucidated. Plasma-based surface treatments can significantly enhance the vertical precision of surface processing through etching processes. Finally, the third part of the book (Part III: Applications) leads us to a number of resuming applications, unveiling the tremendous capabilities of surface functionalization through laser micro- and nanostructuring, assessing the 3D-writing of waveguides in the bulk of dielectrics or semiconductors for enabling new branches of integrated photonics, and summarizing related applications ranging from nanophotonics to nanofluidics and from optical sensing to biomedical applications, including the latest capabilities of refractive eye surgery. This part will analyze the applications’ compatibility in yield and reproducibility with current industrial requirements, costs, and intellectual property aspects. It expands the involved spatial scales by more than eight orders of magnitude, when extending extremely small structures featuring sizes of few tens of nanometers to larger dimensions in the meter range. Thus, from surfaces to the bulk, from subtractive to additive manufacturing approaches, from advanced theoretical frames to practical technological processes – we invite the readers here to an exciting journey into the varicolored landscape of extreme laser nanostructuring. The idea of this book project was seeded in early 2020. We were delighted about the numerous and extremely positive responses from the laser-processing community, quickly receiving commitments for more than 30 individual book chapters. About 2500 communications later, the book is published. We would like to thank all authors of this book project for their insightful and detailed chapters, reviewing and reporting on this fascinating topic of the pursuit of extreme scales in ultrafast laser nanostructuring. Moreover, we would like to acknowledge the professional help and guidance of the staff of Springer Nature. Finally, we hope you will enjoy reading this book as much as we have enjoyed putting it together. Saint Etienne, France Razvan Stoian Berlin, Germany Jörn Bonse December 2022 KW - Laser nanostructuring KW - Surface engineering KW - Nonlinear lithography KW - Self-organization KW - Laser-induced periodic surface structures, LIPSS PY - 2023 SN - 978-3-031-14751-7 (Hardcover) SN - 978-3-031-14752-4 (eBook) U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14752-4 SN - 0342-4111 VL - 239 SP - 1 EP - 1245 PB - Springer Nature Switzerland AG CY - Cham ET - 1 AN - OPUS4-57294 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mauclair, C. A1 - Mermillod-Blondin, A. A1 - Mishchik, K. A1 - Bonse, Jörn A1 - Rosenfeld, A. A1 - Colombier, J. P. A1 - Stoian, R. T1 - Excitation and relaxation dynamics in ultrafast laser irradiated optical glasses N2 - We discuss the dynamics of ultrashort pulsed laser excitation in bulk optical silica-based glasses (fused silica and borosilicate BK7) well-above the permanent modification threshold. We indicate subsequent structural and thermomechanical energy relaxation paths that translate into positive and negative refractive index changes, compression and rarefaction zones. If fast electronic decay occurs at low excitation levels in fused silica via self-trapping of excitons, for carrier densities in the vicinity of the critical value at the incident wavelength, persistent long-living absorptive states indicate the achievement of low viscosity matter states manifesting pressure relaxation, rarefaction, void opening and compaction in the neighboring domains. An intermediate ps-long excited carrier dynamics is observed for BK7 in the range corresponding to structural expansion and rarefaction. The amount of excitation and the strength of the subsequent hydrodynamic evolution is critically dependent on the pulse time envelope, indicative of potential optimization schemes. KW - Ultrafast laser excitation KW - Refractive index engineering KW - Glasses KW - Carrier plasmas KW - Pulse shaping PY - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/hpl.2016.45 SN - 2095-4719 SN - 2052-3289 VL - 4 SP - e46, 1 EP - 8 PB - Cambridge University Press AN - OPUS4-38689 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mermillod-Blondin, A. A1 - Mauclair, C. A1 - Bonse, Jörn A1 - Stoian, R. A1 - Audouard, E. A1 - Rosenfeld, A. A1 - Hertel, I.V. T1 - Time-resolved imaging of laser-induced refractive index changes in transparent media N2 - We describe a method to visualize ultrafast laser-induced refractive index changes in transparent materials with a 310 fs impulse response and a submicrometer spatial resolution. The temporal profile of the laser excitation sequence can be arbitrarily set on the subpicosecond and picosecond time scales with a pulse shaping unit, allowing for complex laser excitation. Time-resolved phase contrast microscopy reveals the real part of the refractive index change and complementary time-resolved optical transmission microscopy measurements give access to the imaginary part of the refractive index in the irradiated region. A femtosecond laser source probes the complex refractive index changes from the excitation time up to 1 ns, and a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser emitting 1 ns duration pulses is employed for collecting data at longer time delays, when the evolution is slow. We demonstrate the performance of our setup by studying the energy relaxation in a fused silica sample after irradiation with a double pulse sequence. The excitation pulses are separated by 3 ps. Our results show two dimensional refractive index maps at different times from 200 fs to 100 µs after the laser excitation. On the subpicosecond time scale we have access to the spatial characteristics of the energy deposition into the sample. At longer times (800 ps), time-resolved phase contrast microscopy shows the appearance of a strong compression wave emitted from the excited region. On the microsecond time scale, we observe energy transfer outside the irradiated region. KW - High-speed optical techniques KW - Light transmission KW - Neodymium KW - Optical harmonic generation KW - Optical pulse shaping KW - Refractive index KW - Self-induced transparency KW - Silicon compounds KW - Solid lasers PY - 2011 UR - http://rsi.aip.org/resource/1/rsinak/v82/i3/p033703_s1 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3527937 SN - 0034-6748 SN - 1089-7623 VL - 82 IS - 3 SP - 033703-1 EP - 033703-8 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville, NY AN - OPUS4-23308 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Mermillod-Blondin, A. A1 - Mauclair, C. A1 - Rosenfeld, A. A1 - Bonse, Jörn A1 - Stoian, R. A1 - Audouard, E. T1 - Time-resolved imaging of bulk a-SiO2 upon various ultrashort excitation sequences N2 - Ultrashort pulses lasers are tools of choice for functionalizing the bulk of transparent materials. In particular, direct photoinscription of simple photonic functions have been demonstrated. Those elementary functions rely on the local refractive index change induced when focusing an ultrashort pulse in the volume of a transparent material. The range of possibilities offered by direct photoinscription is still under investigation. To help understanding, optimizing and assessing the full potential of this method, we developed a time-resolved phase contrast microscopy setup. The imaginary part (absorption) and the real part of the laser-induced complex refractive index can be visualized in the irradiated region. The setup is based on a commercially available phase contrast microscope extended into a pump-probe scheme. The originality of our approach is that the illumination is performed by using a pulsed laser source (i.e. a probe beam). Speckle-related issues are solved by employing adequate sets of diffusers. This laser-microscopy technique has a spatial resolution of 650 nm, and the impulse response is about 300 fs. The laser-induced refractive index changes can be tracked up to milliseconds after the energy deposition. The excitation beam (the pump) is focused with a microscope objective (numerical aperture of 0.45) into the bulk of an a-SiO2 sample. The pump beam can be temporally shaped with a SLM-based pulse shaping unit. This additional degree of flexibility allows for observing different interaction regimes. For instance, bulk material processing with femtosecond and picosecond duration pulses will be studied. T2 - Photonics West 2011 CY - San Francisco, CA, USA DA - 22.01.2011 PY - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1117/12.876687 VL - 7925 IS - 79250R SP - 1 EP - 7 AN - OPUS4-23332 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -