Abstract
We report the fine periodic nanostructure formation process on metal and semiconductor surfaces in air with few-cycle 7-fs laser pulses and its physical mechanism. Using appropriate peak power densities and scanning speeds for the laser pulses, nanostructures could be formed on stainless steel and gallium arsenide (GaAs) with periods of 60–110 nm and 130–165 nm, respectively, which are 1/5–1/4 of the period of nanostructures formed with 100-fs laser pulses. The periodicity can be explained as arising from the excitation of short-range propagating surface plasmon polaritons, and the observed periods are in good agreement with the model calculation results.
1 Introduction
Multiple consecutive femtosecond (fs) laser pulses can form periodic nanostructure on dielectrics (; ; ; ; ; ), semiconductors (; ; ), and metals () with a period d much smaller than the center wavelength λ of the incident fs pulses. This is called high-spatial-frequency laser-induced periodic surface structure (HSF LIPSS) and has attracted attention as a new direct nanofabrication technique beyond the diffraction limit of light. Recently, it has been applied to functional surfaces such as those used for structural coloration (), anti-reflection (), superhydrophobicity/superhydrophilicity (), friction reduction (), and control of cell spreading ().
Studies of the physical mechanism of HSF LIPSS formation for fs laser pulses with a fluence slightly smaller than the single-shot ablation threshold have identified surface modification and roughness induced by high-density electron excitation (; ), generation of an intense optical near-field (; ; ), and excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) (; ) as dominant physical processes. In this physical picture, the surface plasmon wavelength is a key parameter that determines the period d of the nanostructure, which is roughly proportional to the wavelength of the incident light, and thus d can be shortened by using ultraviolet fs pulses (). Reducing d further requires intense ultrashort pulses with shorter wavelengths, but they are difficult to generate and handle.
Since 1999, the fundamental physical process of the photo-excited damage and ablation of the solid surfaces has been studied by using intense sub-10 fs laser pulses (; ; ). However, the HSF LIPSS formation has never been observed, while we have studied the nanostructure formation by ultrashort laser pulses. Recently, we have found that few-cycle laser pulses with a pulse duration of 7 fs and a center wavelength of 810 nm can form nanostructures with d = 60–80 nm on diamond-like carbon (DLC) films (). The formation of nanostructures with d less than λ/10 (; ) have been observed, while the formation mechanism has been discussed in detail. On the other hand, in the authors’ group, subsequent experiments have shown that the physical mechanism includes the generation of an ultrathin layer of high-density electrons and the excitation of short-range propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SR-SPPs) in the surrounding area (). The SR-SPPs is one of the modes of SPPs generated at the interface between two dielectrics in contact with a thin metal film discovered by . Because it is a mode with large attenuation, it can propagate only in a short distance, but it is characterized by a higher wavenumber, that is, a shorter wavelength than that of SPPs excited at a single interface. For nanostructures formed with 800-nm, 100-fs laser pulses, d was observed to be ∼200 nm (), indicating that few-cycle laser pulses can form fine nanostructures without requiring wavelength conversion. However, there have been no reports on the formation of fine nanostructures on metal and semiconductor surfaces with few-cycle laser pulses, and hence details of the physical mechanism for those surfaces are unavailable.
In this study, we report the fine periodic nanostructure formation process on metal and semiconductors in air with few-cycle laser pulses, and its physical mechanism. Various peak power intensities and scanning speeds for the pulses were investigated, and nanostructures on stainless steel and gallium arsenide (GaAs) were formed with periods of 60–110 nm and 130–165 nm, respectively, which are 1/5–1/4 of the period of nanostructures formed with 100-fs laser pulses. The periodicity can be explained as arising from the excitation of short-range propagating surface plasmon polaritons. The observed period is in good agreement with the model calculation results.
2 Experimental
Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of the optical configuration used for our ablation experiment. Linearly polarized laser pulses with a center wavelength of λ = 810 nm, pulse duration Δτ ∼ 7 fs, and repetition rate of 80 MHz were output from a Ti:sapphire laser oscillator (Novanta, Venteon Pulse One). The pulses are called few-cycle laser pulses because the number of oscillations of the electromagnetic field is only a few (). The output pulses were passed through a pair of wedge plates with a 2-degree apex angle and a pair of chirp mirrors to compensate for the group delay dispersion of the entire optical system and maintain Δτ ∼ 7 fs The pulses were controlled with a half-wave plate and polarizer, and the polarization direction was set to horizontal. The pulses were enlarged and collimated with silver-coated curved mirrors with focal lengths of f = −50 mm and 200 mm, and focused on the target. To focus the pulses, we used a Schwarzschild reflective objective mirror (Beck Optronic Solutions, D5007-190, f = 2.6 mm, working distance WD = 1.0 mm) with a numerical aperture NA of 0.65 to prevent group delay dispersion. The focal spot and target surface were observed with a charged-coupled device (CCD) camera. The radius of the focused spot was w0 ∼ 0.4 μm at the 1/e2 value of the intensity. To confirm the pulse duration and spectrum of the pulses, a silver mirror was inserted into the beamline and the temporal and spectral profiles of the pulses were measured with spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER, APE GmbH, FC SPIDER).
FIGURE 1
As targets, we used stainless steel (SUS304) and Si-doped, n-type (100) crystalline gallium arsenide (c-GaAs). Both targets were polished to a surface roughness of Ra < 1 nm. The targets were placed on an automated XY stage and irradiated with fs pulses, moving horizontally at a scanning speed of v = 1–10 μm/s. The peak power density was I = 2U/(πw02Δτ), where U is the pulse energy. In our ablation experiments, the SUS304 and c-GaAs surfaces were irradiated with 7-fs pulses at I = 11–21 TW/cm2 and 16–20 TW/cm2, respectively.
The target surfaces were observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM, JEOL, JSM-6510). The spatial frequency distribution was obtained from the SEM image by a two-dimensional Fourier transform, and the period d of the nanostructure was determined from its peak frequency. Scanning probe microscopy (SPM, Shimazu, SPM-9700) was used to measure the depth of the nanostructures. In addition, the bonding structure of the stainless steel and GaAs surfaces irradiated with fs pulses was analyzed using micro-Raman spectroscopy with a diode-pumped, single-longitudinal-mode, 5-mW, 532-nm laser beam focused with a ×40 objective lens (homemade) and micro-Raman spectroscopy with a diode-pumped, single-longitudinal-mode, 5-mW, 532-nm laser beam focused with a ×100 objective lens (HORIBA, Ltd., LabRAM HR Evolution), respectively.
3 Results and discussion
3.1 Formation process of nanostructure on stainless steel
It is well known that the period d of nanostructures depends on the peak power density I and scanning speed v (i.e., the number of laser pulses N) (; ). We investigated the formation process of nanostructures on SUS304 surfaces with 7-fs laser pulses, changing both I and v. Figure 2 shows SEM images of SUS304 surfaces irradiated with 7-fs pulses at I = 12.4 TW/cm2, 15.5 TW/cm2, and 20.6 TW/cm2 for v = 5 μm/s and 10 μm/s. The figure shows line-like nanostructures perpendicular to the polarization direction formed over the entire ablation trace. To make it easier to see the change in d for various I and v, d is plotted as a function of I for v = 5 μm/s and 10 μm/s in Figure 3. As I increases and v decreases (i.e., increasing N), d monotonically increases in the range d = 60–110 nm. In previous experiments, periodic nanostructures with d = 280–560 nm were formed with 800-nm, 100-fs laser pulses (; ; ; ). Compared to these results, d for the 7-fs pulses is about 1/5 as large as that for the 100-fs pulses. Furthermore, the trend of increasing d with increasing I is different from that of nanostructure formation on DLC films with 7-fs pulses (), while it is the same as that of nanostructure formation on SUS304 surfaces with 100-fs pulses (; ; ; ). The depth of the nanostructures ranged from 10 to 40 nm and increased monotonically with increasing I.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 3
To investigate the bonding structure of SUS304 surfaces by irradiation with 7-fs pulses, we measured the Raman spectra of the irradiated surfaces. Figure 4 shows the Raman spectra of an SUS304 surface irradiated with 7-fs pulses at I = 15.5 TW/cm2 and 19.6 TW/cm2 at v = 5 μm/s and 10 μm/s. The Raman spectrum of a non-irradiated surface is also shown for comparison. The peaks at ∼690 cm−1 and ∼1,320 cm−1 indicate an A1g mode of Fe3O4 () and a second-order-longitudinal-optical (2LO) phonon mode of Fe2O3 (; ), respectively. At v = 5 μm/s, these peaks monotonically increased with increasing I. At v = 10 μm/s, the Fe3O4 peak was observed, while the Fe2O3 peak was small. On the other hand, the peaks of Cr2O3 [305, 348, 552, 612 cm−1 ()] were not observed in our measurement. These results indicate that a layer of iron oxide is formed on the SUS304 surface by 7-fs pulse irradiation and that the layer becomes thicker as I increases and v decreases.
FIGURE 4
3.2 Formation process of nanostructure on GaAs
Figure 5 shows SEM images of GaAs surfaces irradiated with 7-fs pulses at I = 17.0 TW/cm2, 18.1 TW/cm2, and 19.6 TW/cm2 at v = 5 μm/s and 10 μm/s. The figure shows line-like nanostructures perpendicular to the polarization direction formed over the entire ablation traces. Plots of d as a function of I at v = 5 μm/s and 10 μm/s are shown in Figure 6. As I increases and v decreases (i.e., increasing N) d decreases monotonically in the range d = 130–165 nm. In previous experiments, nanostructures with d = 600–650 nm were observed to be formed with 800-nm, 100-fs laser pulses (; ). Compared to these results, d for the 7-fs pulses was about 1/5–1/4 as large as that for the 100-fs pulses. Furthermore, the trend of increasing d with increasing I was different from that on SUS304 surfaces for 7-fs pulses. The depth of the nanostructures was in the range 30–50 nm and increased monotonically with increasing I.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 6
Figure 7 shows Raman spectra of GaAs surfaces irradiated with 7-fs pulses at I = 15.5 TW/cm2 and 19.6 TW/cm2 at v = 5 μm/s and 10 μm/s. The Raman spectrum of a non-irradiated surface is also shown for comparison. The spectrum of the non-irradiated surface contains a peak at ∼265 cm−1, ∼269 cm−1, and ∼290 cm−1, which indicates a longitudinal-optical-phonon-plasmon-coupled (LOPC) mode (), a transverse-optical (TO) phonon mode (), and a LO phonon mode of crystalline GaAs (c-GaAs) (). The spectral peak at 290 cm−1 was reduced after laser irradiation, indicating that irradiation with multiple consecutive 7-fs pulses can change c-GaAs to amorphous GaAs (a-GaAs) ().
FIGURE 7
3.3 Discussion
Based on the results obtained, we first discuss the origin of the periodicity of nanostructure formation on a SUS304 surface. In our previous report for diamond-like carbon (DLC) films, it has been shown that the few-cycle 7-fs laser pulses can form a metallic layer with a much thinner thickness (a few nm) than that with the 100-fs pulses due to the high-peak-power density of the laser pulse with low fluence and the nonlinear absorption of the target (). It is assumed that the 7-fs pulses create a thin layer of iron oxide on the SUS304 surface, a high-density electron layer then forms in the iron oxide layer surface by large optical energy through linear and nonlinear optical absorption process (), and SPPs are excited on the electron layer. The nanostructure can then be formed through ablation induced by the fine distribution of high-density electromagnetic energy. If the thickness of the high-density electron layer is several nanometers to several tens of nanometers, SPPs are excited at both the air/high-density electron layer and high-density electron layer/iron oxide layer interfaces and are coupled coherently. Short-range propagating SPPs (SR-SPPs) with SPP wavelength λspp = 2π/Re[kspp] can then be excited (; ). In this scenario, the following dispersion relation equation is satisfied:where ε1, ε2, and ε3 are the dielectric constants of air, iron oxide with high-density electrons, and iron oxide, respectively, kzj2 = εj (ω/c)2 – kspp2 (j = 1, 2, 3) is the wavenumber of SPPs in each medium, and δ is the thickness of the high-density electron layer. c and ω = 2πc/λ are the speed of light in vacuum and the angular frequency, respectively. Using the Drude model (; ), ε2 is represented bywhere εIB is the dielectric constant of unexcited iron oxide, Ne is the free electron density, Nbf is the characteristic band capacity of the specific photoexcited regions of the first Brillouin zone in the k-space associated with the band-filling effects (), τ is the damping time, and ωp2 = Nee2/(m*mε0) is the square of the plasma frequency with the dielectric constant of vacuum ε0, the electron mass m, and the optical relative effective mass of the electrons m*. Figure 8 shows the calculated period dcal of a nanostructure plotted as a function of electron density Ne. Since the exited SPPs are propagating in two directions along the laser polarization direction to create a standing wave mode, dcal can be λspp/2 (; ; ). Taking ε1 = 1, we have εIB = ε3 = 6.66 + i0.29 (), Nbf = 1023 cm−3 (), m* = 0.8 (), and τ = 1 fs (). For comparison, we also show dcal for SPPs excited only at the interface between the iron oxide with high-density electrons and the iron oxide. In previous reports, we have shown that Ne reaches 1022 cm−3 during nanostructure formation (). In Figure 8, dcal > 30 nm can be seen for δ = 5–10 nm, while dcal increases to >60 nm as δ increases from 10 to 25 nm. For δ > 25 nm, dcal is consistent with that obtained from SPPs, which are excited only at the iron oxide with high-density electrons/iron oxide interface. As shown in our previous study by using DLC (), the thickness of the excited layer should be shallower than the ablation depth per pulse, because SPPs could be excited on the surface having high-density electrons and their near-field could ablate the surface. Because the depth of the observed nanostructures was 10–40 nm, the thickness of the exited layer could be below these values. Based on this, dcal calculated by this model is in good agreement with the period d of the observed nanostructures. As the number of pulses irradiated per unit area increases with decreasing v, the oxide layer should become thicker and the thickness δ of the excited layer should also increase. Therefore, dcal increases with an increase in δ, as shown in Figure 8. On the other hand, an increase in I could increase both δ and Ne. The experimentally observed increase in d with an increase in I, as shown in Figure 3, indicates that the increase in dcal with increasing δ was dominant for SUS304.
FIGURE 8
Next, we discuss the origin of the periodicity of nanostructure formation on a GaAs surface. Assuming that the formation process of nanostructures on GaAs irradiated with 7-fs laser pulses is the same as that on stainless steel, SPPs are excited at two interfaces, air/excited a-GaAs and excited a-GaAs/c-GaAs, and are coupled coherently. Since a-GaAs has no bandgap, the bandgap renormalization effect can be neglected. Figure 9 shows dcal plotted as a function of electron density Ne, where ε1 = 1, the dielectric constant of a-GaAs εIB = 18.7 + i6.8 (), the dielectric constant of c-GaAs ε3 = 13.55 + i0.63 (; ), Nbf = 1023 cm−3 (), m* = 0.061 (), and τ = 1 fs (). For comparison, dcal is also shown for SPPs excited only at the excited a-GaAs/c-GaAs interface. In nanostructure formation on GaAs with 100-fs laser pulses with fluences of 70–200 mJ/cm2, Ne = 2.0–2.6 × 1021 cm−3 has been reported (). In Figure 9, dcal > 100 nm can be seen for δ = 5–10 nm, while dcal increases to >160 nm as δ increases from 10 nm to 25 nm. For δ > 50 nm, dcal = 120–140 nm is consistent with that obtained from SPPs excited only at the excited a-GaAs/c-GaAs interface. Because the depth of the observed nanostructures was 30–50 nm, the thickness of the exited layer could be below these values. Based on this, dcal calculated by this model is in good agreement with the period d of the observed nanostructures. As the number of pulses irradiated per unit area increases with decreasing v, the modified layer should become thicker and the thickness δ of the excited layer should also increase. Therefore, as shown in Figure 9, dcal decreases with increasing δ and Ne. This result can be well explained by the decrease in d with increasing I, as shown in Figure 6.
FIGURE 9
4 Conclusion
We observed the fine periodic nanostructure formation and bonding structural change on stainless steel and GaAs surfaces with 7-fs laser pulses. Experimental results showed the formation of nanostructures on SUS304 and c-GaAs with periods of 60–110 nm and 130–165 nm, respectively, which are 1/5–1/4 the period of nanostructures formed with 100-fs laser pulses. The origin of the periodicity could be explained as arising from the excitation of short-range propagating surface plasmon polaritons. The observed period is in good agreement with the model calculation results.
Statements
Data availability statement
The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.
Author contributions
GM designed the experiment. AI carried out the experiments. GM and AI analyzed the data and carried out the calculations. GM and AI wrote the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
Funding
This work is partially supported by the Amada Foundation.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Y. Iida for his helpful and useful comments on the excitation of SPPs. The measurement and analysis of the Raman spectra of the GaAs surfaces were performed at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology for Smart Core facility Promotion Organization. The authors thank members of Smart Core facility Promotion Organization of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology for technical assistance.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
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Summary
Keywords
femtosecond laser, laser material processing, surface plasmon polariton, stainless steel, gallium arsenide
Citation
Ishihara A and Miyaji G (2023) Fine periodic nanostructure formation on stainless steel and gallium arsenide with few-cycle 7-fs laser pulses. Front. Nanotechnol. 5:1249648. doi: 10.3389/fnano.2023.1249648
Received
29 June 2023
Accepted
08 September 2023
Published
19 September 2023
Volume
5 - 2023
Edited by
Koji Sugioka, RIKEN, Japan
Reviewed by
George Tsibidis, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Greece
Sergey Kudryashov, The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Russia
Updates
Copyright
© 2023 Ishihara and Miyaji.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Godai Miyaji, gmiyaji@cc.tuat.ac.jp
Disclaimer
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