MEMS Fabrication of Silicon Microwire Targets.

Abstract

Micro- and nano-structured surfaces can lead to increased absorption of incident laser pulses in high power laser experiments. Here we describe how MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical System) manufacturing techniques (in this case, optical lithography, and deep silicon etching), have been used to create surface structured ("microwire") laser targets consisting of 15um tall, regular arrays of 2um or 3um wide silicon microcolumns for a recent experimental campaign using the Vulcan laser at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL)