Ultrafast imaging on the formation of periodic ripples on a Si surface with a prefabricated nanogroove induced by a single femtosecond laser pulse.

This paper reports the ultrafast imaging on the formation of periodic surface ripples induced by a single 800 nm, 50 fs laser pulse. The evolution process is observed on a Si surface with a prefabricated nanogroove. The ripples emerge very quickly, only 3 ps after the laser pulse with a fluence of 0.18 J/cm2 irradiating on the surface, and last for several hundreds of picoseconds. The ultrafast dynamics of laser-matter interaction, such as free carrier excitation, carrier and lattice heating, surface plasmon polariton (SPP) excitation, etc, are studied theoretically. The theoretical and experimental results support that the periodic ripples are caused by the periodic energy deposition due to SPP excitation. The emerge time could identify the surface melting causing the formation of periodic ripples, and exclude the other thermal effects, for example, hydrodynamics.

[1]  Saulius Juodkazis,et al.  Competition between subwavelength and deep-subwavelength structures ablated by ultrashort laser pulses , 2017 .

[2]  S. K. Sundaram,et al.  Inducing and probing non-thermal transitions in semiconductors using femtosecond laser pulses , 2002, Nature materials.

[3]  Shigeki Tokita,et al.  Mechanism for self-formation of periodic grating structures on a metal surface by a femtosecond laser pulse , 2009 .

[4]  A. Yi,et al.  Time-resolved measurement of single pulse femtosecond laser-induced periodic surface structure formation induced by a pre-fabricated surface groove. , 2015, Optics express.

[5]  T. Jia,et al.  Direct writing of 150 nm gratings and squares on ZnO crystal in water by using 800 nm femtosecond laser. , 2014, Optics Express.

[6]  Mengyan Shen,et al.  High-density regular arrays of nanometer-scale rods formed on silicon surfaces via femtosecond laser irradiation in water. , 2008, Nano letters.

[8]  S. Matsuo,et al.  Subnanosecond-laser-induced periodic surface structures on prescratched silicon substrate , 2016 .

[9]  J. Siegel,et al.  Coherent scatter-controlled phase-change grating structures in silicon using femtosecond laser pulses , 2017, Scientific Reports.

[10]  Costas Fotakis,et al.  Bio-inspired water repellent surfaces produced by ultrafast laser structuring of silicon , 2009 .

[11]  Fei Wang,et al.  Femtosecond laser direct writing of large-area two-dimensional metallic photonic crystal structures on tungsten surfaces. , 2015, Optics express.

[12]  Kenzo Miyazaki,et al.  Nanograting formation through surface plasmon fields induced by femtosecond laser pulses , 2013 .

[13]  S. Gurevich,et al.  Laser Induced Periodic Surface Structures induced by surface plasmons coupled via roughness , 2013, 1307.0979.

[14]  Klaus Sokolowski-Tinten,et al.  Transient States of Matter during Short Pulse Laser Ablation , 1998 .

[15]  S. Das,et al.  Multiphoton excitation of surface plasmon-polaritons and scaling of nanoripple formation in large bandgap materials , 2013 .

[16]  Chunlei Guo,et al.  Brighter light sources from black metal: significant increase in emission efficiency of incandescent light sources. , 2009, Physical review letters.

[17]  Saulius Juodkazis,et al.  Laser printed nano-gratings: orientation and period peculiarities , 2016, Scientific Reports.

[18]  G. Ma,et al.  Femtosecond laser nanostructuring of silver film , 2012 .

[19]  T. Jia,et al.  Two-photon excitation of surface plasmon and the period-increasing effect of low spatial frequency ripples on a GaP crystal in air/water , 2016 .

[20]  A. Rosenfeld,et al.  On the role of surface plasmon polaritons in the formation of laser-induced periodic surface structures upon irradiation of silicon by femtosecond-laser pulses , 2009 .

[21]  Nan Zhang,et al.  Ablation of metallic targets by high-intensity ultrashort laser pulses , 2007 .

[22]  Zhi‐zhan Xu,et al.  Origin of laser-induced near-subwavelength ripples: interference between surface plasmons and incident laser. , 2009, ACS nano.

[23]  T. Derrien,et al.  High-speed manufacturing of highly regular femtosecond laser-induced periodic surface structures: physical origin of regularity , 2017, Scientific Reports.

[24]  Young Ki Choi,et al.  NUMERICAL ANALYSIS ON HEAT TRANSFER CHARACTERISTICS OF A SILICON FILM IRRADIATED BY PICO-TO FEMTOSECOND PULSE LASERS , 2003 .

[25]  D. Adams,et al.  Laser-induced periodic surface structure formation resulting from single-pulse ultrafast irradiation of Au microstructures on a Si substrate , 2013 .

[26]  T. Jia,et al.  Dynamics of femtosecond laser-induced periodic surface structures on silicon by high spatial and temporal resolution imaging , 2014 .

[27]  J. K. Chen,et al.  Numerical investigation of ultrashort laser damage in semiconductors , 2005 .

[28]  Jan Siegel,et al.  Time- and space-resolved dynamics of melting, ablation, and solidification phenomena induced by femtosecond laser pulses in germanium , 2006 .

[29]  T. Jia,et al.  The influences of surface plasmons and thermal effects on femtosecond laser-induced subwavelength periodic ripples on Au film by pump-probe imaging , 2017 .

[30]  Ya Cheng,et al.  Large area uniform nanostructures fabricated by direct femtosecond laser ablation. , 2008, Optics express.

[31]  R. Yen,et al.  Time-Resolved Reflectivity Measurements of Femtosecond-Optical-Pulse-Induced Phase Transitions in Silicon , 1983 .

[32]  Emmanuel Stratakis,et al.  Ripple formation on nickel irradiated with radially polarized femtosecond beams. , 2015, Optics letters.

[33]  F. Ilday,et al.  Nonlinear laser lithography for indefinitely large-area nanostructuring with femtosecond pulses , 2013, Nature Photonics.

[34]  J. Sipe,et al.  Regimes of laser-induced periodic surface structure on germanium: radiation remnants and surface plasmons. , 1983, Optics letters.

[35]  S. Lee,et al.  Femtosecond pulse laser interactions with thin silicon films and crater formation considering optical phonons and wave interference , 2008 .

[36]  R. Stoian,et al.  Plasmonic and Hydrodynamic Effects in Ultrafast Laser-Induced Periodic Surface Structures on Metals , 2012 .

[37]  Ultrafast spatiotemporal relaxation dynamics of excited electrons in a metal nanostructure detected by femtosecond-SNOM. , 2010, Optics express.

[38]  Costas Fotakis,et al.  Dynamics of ripple formation on silicon surfaces by ultrashort laser pulses in subablation conditions , 2012 .

[39]  K. Sokolowski-Tinten,et al.  Timescales in the response of materials to femtosecond laser excitation , 2004 .

[40]  I. Abdulhalim,et al.  Form-birefringence in ITO thin films engineered by ultrafast laser nanostructuring , 2017 .

[41]  J. Siegel,et al.  Ultrafast Moving-Spot Microscopy: Birth and Growth of Laser-Induced Periodic Surface Structures , 2016 .

[42]  Ruediger Grunwald,et al.  Femtosecond laser-induced periodic surface structures revisited: A comparative study on ZnO , 2009 .