Probing laser-driven structure formation at extreme scales in space and time

Abstract

Irradiation of solid surfaces with high intensity, ultrashort laser pulses triggers a variety of secondary processes that can lead to the formation of transient and permanent structures over large range of length scales from mm down to the nano-range. One of the most prominent examples are LIPSS - Laser Induced Periodic Surface Structures. While LIPSS have been a scientific evergreen for of almost 60 years, experimental methods that combine ultrafast temporal with the required nm spatial resolution have become available only recently with the advent of short pulse, short wavelength free electron lasers. Here we discuss the current status and future perspectives in this field by exploiting the unique possibilities of these 4th-generation light sources to address by time-domain experimental techniques the fundamental LIPSS-question, namely why and how laser-irradiation can initiate the transition of a "chaotic" (rough) surface from an aperiodic into a periodic structure.

13 pages incl. 5 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Femtosecond Diffractive Imaging with a Soft-X-ray Free-Electron Laser
• From ripples to spikes: a hydro-dynamical physical mechanism to interpret femtosecond laser induced self-assembled structures
• Biomimetic Omnidirectional Anti-reflective Glass via Direct Ultrafast Laser Nanostructuring
• Mechanism of the single-pulse ablative generation of laser induced periodic surface structures
• Concepts and use cases for picosecond ultrasonics with x-rays

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Laser-induced plasma formation and cavitation in water: from nanoeffects to extreme states of matter
• Photonic Learning in Ultrafast Laser-Induced Complexity