Nanograting formation on metals in air with interfering femtosecond laser pulses

It is demonstrated that a homogeneous nanograting having the groove period much smaller than the laser wavelength (similar to 800 nm) can be fabricated on metals in air through ablation induced by interfering femtosecond laser pulses (100 fs at a repetition rate of 10 Hz). Morphological changes on stainless steel and Ti surfaces, observed with an increase in superimposed shots of the laser pulses at a low fluence, have shown that the nanograting is developed through bonding structure change at the interference fringes, plasmonic near-field ablation to create parallel grooves on the fringe, and subsequent excitation of surface plasmon polaritons to regulate the groove intervals at 1/3 or 1/4 of the fringe period over the whole irradiated area. Calculation for a model target having a thin oxide layer on the metal substrate reproduces well the observed groove periods and explains the mechanism for the nanograting formation. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.