Toward nanostructuring with femtosecond laser pulses

Abstract

The development of a simple laser-based technology for the fabrication of two-dimensional nanostructures with a structure size down to one hundred nanometers is reported. The ability to micro- and nano-structure is very important for the fabrication of new materials and multifunctional microdevices. Photolithographic technologies can be applied only for plane surfaces. Using femtosecond laser pulses one can fabricate 100 nm structures on arbitrary 3D-surfaces of metals and dielectrics. In principle, the minimum achievable structure size is determined by the diffraction limit of the optical system and is of the order of the radiation wavelength. However, this is different for material processing with ultrashort laser pulses. Due to a well-defined threshold character of material processing with femtosecond lasers one can beat the diffraction limit by using tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses and by adjusting laser parameters slightly above the processing threshold. In this case only the central part of the beam can modify the material and it becomes possible to produce sub-wavelength structures. In this presentation, sub-wavelength microstructuring of metals and fabrication of periodic nanostructures in transparent materials are demonstrated as promising femtosecond laser-based nanofabrication technologies.