Femtosecond Laser Structuring of

Metal Surfaces
1
Lotus Effect
2
Outline
Introduction

Metal Interactions with fs Pulses.

Self-organised structures: LIPSS.

Setup and results on Al

Next Steps



3
Introduction: Micromachining with laser
4
Two Temperature Model (TTM)
( )
e
e e i
T Q Q Q
C T T S
t x y z

| | c c c c
= + + +
|
c c c c
\ .
) (
i e
i
i
T T
t
T
C =
c
c

) exp( * * ) ( z A t I S o o =
Femtosecond Laser Heating
Lattice
Electrons
Laser
Electrons
Lattice
Laser
Transfer of heat from electrons to material takes time.
Electron and material temperature treated separately during pulse-on time.
Pulse is over before heat diffusion in material lattice can occur.

5
Time for
equilibrium
X10
16

W/m
3
K
Metal
7.7 ps 10 Cu
16.5 ps 3.6 Ag
27.4 ps 2.1 Au
Calculated time evolution of surface electron and
lattice temperature in Cu, Ag and Au.
J. Wang and C. Guo, J. Appl. Phys. 102, 053522 (2007)
Temperature Evolutions of Electrons and Lattice
Materials with long delay for
coupling of energy from electron
to lattice system melt more than
those with fast coupling
6
Light Penetration in Metals
Laser light is strongly reflected, penetration is limited to small skin depth of
evanescent wave.
Optical absorption depths for several materials over a range of wavelengths
D.R. Lide, CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 82nd edn. (CRC, Boca Raton, 2001)

toe
o
2
c
=
c = light speed, o = conductivity,
= permeability, e = frequency
For metals, o ~ 20 nm at 1 m
7
Femtosecond Pulses Absorbed Within Skin Depth
fs laser:
Skin depth is small

Thermal penetration within the
skin depth.


Result:
fast ionization and evaporation

ablation of the material before
significant heat conduction
(non- thermal ablation).

1
10
100
1000
Nanosecond Femtosecond
D
e
p
t
h

(
n
m
)
Skin Depth
Thermal Depth
Thermal penetration depth
t d
T T
o ~
skin depth
toe
o
2
c
=
8
300 nm
LIPSS= Laser Induced periodic surface structures.
Self-organised structures
M.Huang et al, Opt. Express 16(23), 19354- (2008)
E E
9
Origin of LIPSS
Laser light
polarization
Distortions
couple the light
with surface
plasmons
Distortions are
sources of waves
Waves propagates
in both directions

10
Direct Interference
Origin of LIPSS
c = c

+ic

<
11
800 nm
70 fs, 0.7 mJ/pluse, 1kHz
D=300 m
Experimental Setup
Laser Processed Aluminum
=50mm,thickness=5mm
Laser Processed Gold
30 m gold coated on Copper plate
12
Colours on Aluminum
Uniform colour
=570 nm E
Angle-dependant
colour
13
Application: Colorizing Metals by Nanostructuring
Marking on 316L Stainless steel
sample
Aluminium samples
Y. Vorobyev and C. Guo.
Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 041914 2008
B. Dusser, Z. Sagan, H. Soder, N. Faure, J.P.
Colombier, M. Jourlin, and E. Audouard.
Optics Express, Vol. 18, Issue 3, pp. 2913-2924 (2010)
14
E=244 mJ/cm
2
E=137 mJ/cm
2
E=975 mJ/cm
2

Polarisation
Laser scan
direction
100 m 100 m 100 m
10 m 10 m 10 m
Scanning step=25m
Number of pass/line=1
Scanning speed=5 mm/s.
Laser Fluence Effect
15
Enhanced Absorption Of Aluminium
Golden Al
Polished Al
Gray Al
Black Al
16
Enhanced Absorption Of Aluminium
Influence on reflectivity Feature size
Light trapping due to multiple reflections enhances coupling into
the material.
>>
Small features can successively scatter light, increasing the
effective optical path length and enhancing absorption.

??
Antireflection effect of random surface textures in terms of
graded refractive index at air/solid interface.
Broadening of SPs absorption spectra induced by various sizes
and shapes.
<<
17
Ti:Sapphire
Oscillator
Amplifier
Pump Laser Pump Laser
BS
NF
Chopper
Optical Delay line
-100ps to 2.5 ns
M1
M2
M3
L1
L2
L3
Shutter
WLC
PM1
PM1
Sample
NF
Spectrometer
with CCD
Data acquisition
Computer
Femtosecond Laser system
=800nm
=800nm
=340-700nm
Next step:Time-resolved reflectivity setup
18