Femtosecond-laser-assisted material restructuring employs extreme optical intensities to localize the ablation regions. To overcome the minimum feature size limit set by the wave nature of photons, there is a need for new approaches to tailored material processing at the nanoscale. Here, we report the formation of deeply-subwavelength features in silicon, enabled by localized laser-induced phase explosions in prefabricated silicon resonators. Using short trains of mid-infrared laser pulses, we demonstrate the controllable formation of high aspect ratio (>10:1) nanotrenches as narrow as
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. The trench geometry is shown to be scalable with wavelength, and controlled by multiple parameters of the laser pulse train, such as the intensity and polarization of each laser pulse and their total number. Particle-in-cell simulations reveal localized heating of silicon beyond its boiling point and suggest its subsequent phase explosion on the nanoscale commensurate with the experimental data. The observed femtosecond-laser assisted nanostructuring of engineered microstructures (FLANEM) expands the nanofabrication toolbox and opens exciting opportunities for high-throughput optical methods of nanoscale structuring of solid materials.
Laser machining can modify and reshape materials on the scale comparable to light’s wavelength. Here, authors use tailored microstructures to push the limit of laser machining to a scale that is almost 100 times smaller than a wavelength of light.
- Nanoscale reshaping of resonant dielectric microstructures by light-driven explosions
- Maxim R. Shcherbakov - University of California, IrvineGiovanni Sartorello - Cornell UniversitySimin Zhang - The Ohio State UniversityJoshua Bocanegra - University of California, IrvineMelissa Bosch - Cornell UniversityMichael Tripepi - Hillsdale CollegeNoah Talisa - The Ohio State UniversityAbdallah AlShafey - The Ohio State UniversityJoseph Smith - Marietta CollegeStephen Londo - Institut National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrançois Légaré - Institut National de la Recherche ScientifiqueEnam Chowdhury - The Ohio State UniversityGennady Shvets - Cornell University
- Nature communications, Vol.14(1), pp.6688-6688
- Nature Publishing Group UK
- 991019477688807081
- English
- Journal article