Laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS, ripples) are a universal phenomenon that can be observed on almost any material after the irradiation by linearly polarized laser beams, particularly when using ultrashort laser pulses with durations in the picosecond to femtosecond range. During the past few years significantly increasing research activities have been reported in the field of LIPSS, since their generation in a single-step process provides a simple way of nanostructuring and surface functionalization towards the control of optical, mechanical or chemical properties. In this contribution current applications of LIPSS are reviewed, including the colorization of technical surfaces, the control of surface wetting, the tailoring of surface colonization by bacterial biofilms, and the improvement of the tribological performance of nanostructured metal surfaces.
Over the past years, many applications based on laser-induced refractive index changes in the volume of transparent materials have been demonstrated. Ultrashort pulse lasers offer the possibility to process bulky transparent materials in three dimensions, suggesting that direct laser writing will play a decisive role in the development of integrated micro-optics. At the present time, applications such as 3D long term data storage or embedded laser marking are already into the phase of industrial development. However, a quantitative estimate of the laser-induced refractive index change is still very challenging to obtain. On another hand, several microscopy techniques have been recently developed to characterize bulk refractive index changes in-situ. They have been mostly applied to biological purposes. Among those, spatial light interference microscopy (SLIM), offers a very good robustness with minimal post acquisition data processing. In this paper, we report on using SLIM to measure fs-laser induced refractive index changes in different common glassy materials, such as fused silica and borofloat glass (B33). The advantages of SLIM over classical phase-contrast microscopy are discussed.
Some nonlinear optical properties such as the nonlinear refractive index and the nonlinear effective absorption, as well as the laser-induced single-pulse ablation threshold are characterized for a series of binary and ternary silicate glasses upon irradiation with near-infrared femtosecond laser pulses (800 nm, 130 fs). The laser-induced ablation threshold varies from 2.3 J/cm² in case of potassium silicate glass up to 4.3 J/cm² in case of Fused Silica. Nonlinear refractive indices are qualitatively similar within the range 1.7-2.7×10-16 cm²/W. Complementary optical and physico-chemical properties like band gap energy and the glass transformation temperature have been measured for all the glasses.
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.
The formation of laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) upon irradiation of semiconductors and dielectrics by linearly polarized high-intensity Ti:sapphire fs-laser pulses (τ ~100 fs, λ ~800 nm) is studied experimentally and theoretically. In the experiments, two different types of LIPSS exhibiting very different spatial periods are observed (socalled LSFL low spatial frequency LIPSS, and HSFL - high spatial frequency LIPSS), both having a different dependence on the incident laser fluence and pulse number per spot. The experimental results are analyzed by means of a new theoretical approach, which combines the generally accepted LIPSS theory of J. E. Sipe and co-workers [Phys. Rev. B 27, 1141-1154 (1983)] with a Drude model, in order to account for transient changes of the optical properties of the irradiated materials. The joint Sipe-Drude model is capable of explaining numerous aspects of fs-LIPSS formation, i.e., the orientation of the LIPSS, their fluence dependence as well as their spatial periods. The latter aspect is specifically demonstrated for silicon crystals, which show experimental LSFL periods Λ somewhat smaller than λ. This behaviour is caused by the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons, SPP, (once the initially semiconducting material turns to a metallic state upon formation of a dense free-electron-plasma in the material) and the subsequent interference between its electrical fields with that of the incident laser beam, resulting in a spatially modulated energy deposition at the surface.
Upon multi-pulse irradiation, a feedback mechanism, caused by the redshift of the resonance in a grating-assisted SPP excitation, is further reducing the LSFL spatial periods. The SPP-based mechanism of LSFL successfully explains the remarkably large range of LSFL periods between ~0.6 λ and λ.
The current state in the field of laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS, ripples) is reviewed. Their formation mechanisms are analyzed in ultrafast experiments (time-resolved diffraction and polarization controlled double-pulse experiments) and technological applications are demonstrated.