From ripples to spikes: a hydro-dynamical physical mechanism to interpret femtosecond laser induced self-assembled structures

Abstract

Materials irradiated with multiple femtosecond laser pulses in sub-ablation conditions are observed to develop various types of self-assembled morphologies that range from nano-ripples to periodic micro-grooves and quasi-periodic micro-spikes. Here, we present a physical scenario that couples electrodynamics, describing surface plasmon excitation, with hydrodynamics, describing Marangoni convection, to elucidate this important sub-ablation regime of light matter interaction in which matter is being modified, however, the underlying process is not yet fully understood. The proposed physical mechanism could be generally applicable to practically any conductive material structured by ultrashort laser pulses, therefore it can be useful for the interpretation of further critical aspects of light matter interaction.

arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1109.2568

References in corpus (3)

• Material decomposition mechanisms in femtosecond laser interactions with metals
• Theoretical study of dislocation nucleation from simple surface defects in semiconductors
• Controlled Irradiative Formation of Penitentes

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