Periodic nanovoid structures via femtosecond laser irradiation

We have observed periodically aligned nanovoid structures inside a conventional borosilicate glass induced by a single femtosecond (fs) laser beam for the first time, to our knowledge. The spherical voids of nanosized diameter were aligned spontaneously with a period along the propagation direction of the laser beam. The period, the number of voids, and the whole length of the aligned void structure were controlled by changing the laser power, the pulse number, and the position of the focal point.     

Direct precipitation of silver nanoparticles induced by a high repetition femtosecond laser

Silver nanoparticles were precipitated directly in Ag⁺ doped silicate glass by a 150 fs, 800 nm, 250 kHz femtosecond laser irradiation. The irradiated pattern turned to yellow without heat treatment. The absorption peak about 400 nm, ascribed to the surface plasmon resonance of the formed silver nanoparticles, was observed. We believe that the reduced Ag atoms, via capturing free electrons created by multi-photon process, may aggregate into the Ag nanoparticles due to femtosecond laser inducing heat accumulation effect. This result has promising applications for the fabrication of 3D multi-colored images inside a transparent material.     

Noncrystalline micromachining of amorphous alloys using femtosecond laser pulses

Femtosecond laser micromachining of a Zr-based amorphous alloy in air, including measuring the ablation threshold, micro-drilling and trenching, was investigated. The threshold of ablating this amorphous alloy was determined by experiment. Laser-induced ablation and associated damage were examined by means of optical microscope, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction diagram. The results show that conventional processing method induced defects in the vicinity of machined area, such as crystallization, molten trace and spatter, were absent in femtosecond laser ablation area with selected parameters. This indicates that femtosecond laser ablation is a promising method for micromachining amorphous alloys without crystallization.     

Micromachining of hardened Portland cement pastes using femtosecond laser pulses

Femtosecond laser pulses (30 fs in length) of various energies were utilised for production of single and multiple overlapping ablation sites on flat polished surfaces of hardened Portland cement pastes. In order to assess the sizes of the ablation sites and possible subsurface laser-induced damage, the ablation sites were investigated using environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) – both from normal top–down view and in cross-sections. Furthermore, approximately 10-μm wide notches were produced using femtosecond pulses on cylindrical microspecimens (150 μm in diameter) of hardened Portland cement pastes. In addition to electron microscopy observations, several microspecimens were investigated using synchrotron-based X-ray computed microtomography (SRμCT). The results suggest that production of “damage-free” samples for micromechanical testing of hardened Portland cements pastes is possible.

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Résumé Des impulsions laser (de durée 30 fs) et d’énergie variable ont été utilisées pour produire une ablation ponctuelle ou linéique à la surface d’un ciment durci de type Portland et préalablement polie. Pour déterminer la taille des impacts et d’éventuels dommages causés par le laser sous la surface, les points d’impact ont été visualisés à l’aide de la technique de l’ESEM (microscope électronique à balayage environnemental). De plus, des piliers de 10 micromètres de diamètre environ ont été réalisés par ablation femtoseconde sur des échantillons cylindriques de 150 microns de diamètre. Pour compléter les observations faites au microscope électronique, certains échantillons ont été observés grace à la technique SRμCT (synchrotron-based X-ray computed microtomography). Les résultats montrent que la production d’échantillons non-endommagés de ciment de type Portland pour des tests micro-mécaniques ultérieurs est possible.

     

High-brightness femtosecond laser using titanium-sapphire technology and amplification in dyes

We modify a conventional picosecond dye-amplifier system to achieve maximum brightness for 100-fs pulses derived from a titanium-sapphire oscillator. We obtain near transform-limited 4-GW pulses by using efficient chirped-pulse amplification and compression based on a prism-pair stretcher and a glass-block compressor. Good beam quality and minimum beam divergence are obtained with a Bethune cell final amplifier. The system is shown to be capable of generating beam brightness in excess of 2 × 10(7) W cm(-2) sr(-1), within a factor of 2 of that expected for a diffraction-limited beam.     

Laser desorption and imaging of proteins from ice via UV femtosecond laser pulses

We have employed 200-fs, 400-nm laser pulses to desorb intact protein molecular ions directly from a frozen aqueous matrix. The resulting spectra obtained using a variety of proteins varying in molecular weight from 1060 (bradykinin) to 5778 Da (insulin) are compatible with those obtained with traditional matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization experiments. High-quality spectra could be generated using a fluence of 4.0-9.0 J/cm2 to desorb proteins from an aqueous solution frozen onto metal substrates with a sensitivity in the femtomole range. Although the mechanism behind this effect is still not clear, we speculate that it involves explosive boiling of the ice layer due to rapid heating of the substrate. Imaging experiments conducted on the ice layer suggest that the yield of protein is approximately independent of the film thickness and is very reproducible from shot to shot. The results are particularly significant since they open the possibility of examining a range of biomaterials directly from the in vivo aqueous environment.     

Inducing and probing non-thermal transitions in semiconductors using femtosecond laser pulses

Soon after it was discovered that intense laser pulses of nanosecond duration from a ruby laser could anneal the lattice of silicon, it was established that this so-called pulsed laser annealing is a thermal process. Although the radiation energy is transferred to the electrons, the electrons transfer their energy to the lattice on the timescale of the excitation. The electrons and the lattice remain in equilibrium and the laser simply 'heats' the solid to the melting temperature within the duration of the laser pulse. For ultrashort laser pulses in the femtosecond regime, however, thermal processes (which take several picoseconds) and equilibrium thermodynamics cannot account for the experimental data. On excitation with femtosecond laser pulses, the electrons and the lattice are driven far out of equilibrium and disordering of the lattice can occur because the interatomic forces are modified due to the excitation of a large (10% or more) fraction of the valence electrons to the conduction band. This review focuses on the nature of the non-thermal transitions in semiconductors under femtosecond laser excitation.     

飞秒激光三维微细加工技术

双光子吸收几率与光强度的平方成正比,因此,双光子吸收引发光致聚合局限在紧密聚焦的焦点区域,通过控制焦点的扫描运动可实现高精度三维加工。基于该原理,提出了一种利用飞秒激光进行微细加工的技术。根据此技术,建立了飞秒激光三维微细加工系统,该系统包括光源系统、显微镜系统、实时监测系统和精密移动系统等。研究发现,该系统加工的直线线宽最小可达500nm;加工线宽与加工速度成反比;激光功率为2mW时,最大和最小临界加工速度分别为80μm/s和1μm/s;制备出线宽1μm,宽度5μm的“CHINA”复杂结构,以及杆间距、层间距均为5μm的三维木堆型光子晶体结构。实验证实,该技术是一种非常灵活的微细加工技术。     

Silica coating of polymer nanowires produced via nanoimprint lithography from femtosecond laser machined templates

In this paper we report on the fabrication of regular arrays of silica nanoneedles by deposition of a thin layer of silica on patterned arrays of polymer nanowires (or polymer nanohair). An array of high-aspect-ratio nanoscale diameter holes of depths greater than 10?μm was produced at the surface of a fused silica wafer by an amplified femtosecond laser system operated in single-pulse mode. Cellulose acetate (CA) film was imprinted into the nanoholes and peeled off to form a patterned array of standing CA nanowires, a negative replica of the laser machined nanoholes. The cellulose acetate replica was then coated with silica in a chemical vapor deposition process using silicon tetrachloride vapor at 65?°C. Field emission scanning electron microscopy, focused ion beam sectioning, energy dispersive x-ray analysis and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy were used to characterize the silica nanoneedles. Precisely patterned, functionalized arrays of standing silica nanoneedles are useful for a number of applications.     

飞秒激光时空整形的电子动态调控微孔加工

微孔作为一种常见结构,被广泛应用于生物医疗、航空航天、三维封装等领域.飞秒激光具有的超短脉冲持续时间和超高峰值功率特性使其在高质量微孔加工方面具有独特优势.本文综述了近年来飞秒激光时空整形微孔加工方法及其应用,包括飞秒激光时空整形方法、时域/空域整形的电子动态调控微孔加工以及微孔在增透减反、切割以及油水分离、雾气收集、...     

Scalable shape-controlled fabrication of curved microstructures using a femtosecond laser wet-etching process

Materials with curvilinear surface microstructures are highly desirable for micro-optical and biomedical devices. However, realization of such devices efficiently remains technically challenging. This paper demonstrates a facile and flexible method to fabricate curvilinear microstructures with controllable shapes and dimensions. The method composes of femtosecond laser exposures and chemical etching process with the hydrofluoric acid solutions. By fixed-point and step-in laser irradiations followed by the chemical treatments, concave microstructures with different profiles such as spherical, conical, bell-like and parabola were fabricated on silica glasses. The convex structures were replicated on polymers by the casting replication process. In this work, we used this technique to fabricate high-quality microlens arrays and high-aspect-ratio microwells which can be used in 3D cell culture. This approach offers several advantages such as high-efficient, scalable shape-controllable and easy manipulations.     

Three-dimensional nanostructuring with femtosecond laser pulses

The development of simple laser-based technologies for the fabrication of complicated three-dimensional (3-D) microstructures with a structure size down to 100 nm is reported. These technologies are based on nonlinear multiphoton laser-matter interaction processes allowing to overcome the diffraction limit and to fabricate 3-D structures inside transparent materials. Examples on nanostructuring of metals, dielectrics, and polymers are presented.     

Greatly enhanced infrared normal spectral emissivity of microstructured silicon using a femtosecond laser

The infrared normal spectral emissivity of microstructured silicon prepared by femtosecond laser irradiation in SF₆ was measured for the wavelength range 2.5 μm to 25 μm. Greatly enhanced emissivity compared to that of flat silicon was observed over the entire wavelength range. For a sample with 13-14 μm high spikes, the emissivity at a temperature of 100 °C is approximately 0.96. The emissivity decreases slightly in the wavelength region above 8 μm, but remains higher than 0.9 over most of the measured wavelength range. Also the average emissivity is less than Nextel- Velvet-811-21 Coating, it can be used stably at more wide temperatures from 100 °C to 400 °C. These results show the potential for microstructured silicon to be used as a flat blackbody source or silicon-based pyroelectric and microbolometer devices.     

用SPIDER法还原飞秒脉冲振幅和相位误差

基于光谱位相相干直接电场重构法(SPIDER)测量飞秒激光脉冲的基本原理和重构飞秒脉冲的算法,数值模拟了SPIDER技术重构飞秒脉冲的过程,分析了时间延迟τ、光谱剪切量Ω的选取原则.以宽度约为50 fs的高斯型线性啁啾脉冲为例,取不同的时间延迟τ、光谱剪切量Ω重构了飞秒脉冲,得到:重构出的飞秒脉冲强度和位相最接近时,时间延迟τ约为2 260 fs,相对光谱剪切量Ω/Δω约为10%.     

Splitting of femtosecond laser pulses by using a Dammann grating and compensation gratings

When a Dammann grating is used to split a beam of femtosecond laser pulses into multiple equal-intensity beams, chromatic dispersion will occur in beams of each order of diffraction and with different scale of angular dispersion because the incident ultrashort pulse contains a broad range of spectral bandwidths. We propose a novel method in which the angular dispersion can be compensated by positioning an m-time-density grating to collimate the mth-order beam that has been split, producing an array of beams that are free of angular dispersion. The increased width of the compensated output pulses and the spectral walk-off effect are discussed. We have verified this approach theoretically and validated it through experiments. It should be highly interesting in practical applications of splitting femtosecond laser pulses for pulse-width measurement, pump-probe measurement, and micromachining at multiple points.     

High-density regular arrays of nanometer-scale rods formed on silicon surfaces via femtosecond laser irradiation in water

We report on the formation of high-density regular arrays of nanometer-scale rods using femtosecond laser irradiation of a silicon surface immersed in water. The resulting surface exhibits both micrometer-scale and nanometer-scale structures. The micrometer-scale structure consists of spikes of 5-10 mum width, which are entirely covered by nanometer-scale rods that are roughly 50 nm wide and normal to the surface of the micrometer-scale spikes. The formation of the nanometer-scale rods involves several processes: refraction of laser light in highly excited silicon, interference of scattered and refracted light, rapid cooling in water, roughness-enhanced optical absorptance, and capillary instabilities.     

Low-threshold self-starting femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser

A low-threshold self-starting Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser is demonstrated that uses a tight-focusing cavity design in conjunction with a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror (SESAM). With 3% and 12% output couplers, we achieve mode-locking thresholds as low as 390 and 600 mW, respectively. Stable femtosecond laser pulses with average power of 114 mW are generated at a pump power of 1.2 W, which corresponds to a typical duration of 17 fs and bandwidth of 47 nm. Mode-locking operation is achieved in a pump power range of 600 mW to 4.8 W at an output coupling of 12%; the advantages of using a SESAM for low-power mode-locking operation are demonstrated.     

Aluminum alloy nanosecond vs femtosecond laser marking

Based on the lack of consistent literature publications that analyse the effects of laser marking for traceability on various materials, the present paper proposes a study of the influence of such radiation processing on an aluminum alloy, a vastly used material base within several industry fields. For the novelty impact, femtolaser marking has been carried out, besides the standard commercial nanosecond engraving. All the marks have been analysed using profilometry, overhead and cross-section SEM microscopy, respectively and EDAX measurements.     

Fabrication of polymer-silica core-shell particles using copolymeric spheres prepared via precipitation polymerization

Silica-coated polymeric particles were synthesized based on cationic colloidal particles which were prepared by precipitation polymerization of divinylbenzene in the presence of a cationic monomer, N-[3-(dimethylamino)propyl]methacrylamide. Negatively charged silica precursors were interacted with the cationic charged dimethylamine groups in colloidal particles. The resulting polymer/silica core/shell particles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Moreover, omniphobic particles were achieved by coupling reaction of the core/shell particles with nonafluorohexyl-triethoxysilane. Their water/oil static contact angles were investigated.     

GHz重复频率飞秒激光器发展趋势

随着飞秒光梳光谱、飞秒测距等飞秒激光器相关应用领域的发展,对于更高重复频率的飞秒激光器也产生了越来越迫切的需求。本文叙述了固体激光器和光纤激光器在产生GHz重复频率的飞秒脉冲输出上所使用的主要技术和技术进展,总结了GHz激光器的最新发展趋势。为之后进行GHz重复频率飞秒激光器研究的相关人员提供了一定的参考。