1. Maskless laser nano-lithography of glass through sequential activation of multi-threshold ablation
- Author
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Chunlei Guo, Anatoliy Y. Vorobyev, Subhash C. Singh, Jianjun Yang, Erik M. Garcell, Billy Lam, Yizhuo He, Zhibing Zhan, and Jihua Zhang
- Subjects
010302 applied physics ,Materials science ,Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous) ,business.industry ,02 engineering and technology ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Laser ,01 natural sciences ,Fluence ,law.invention ,Controllability ,Nanolithography ,law ,0103 physical sciences ,Nano ,Optoelectronics ,Irradiation ,0210 nano-technology ,business ,Ultrashort pulse ,Lithography - Abstract
Controllable nanofabrication is at the very foundation of nano-science and nano-technology. Today, ultrafast laser writing has been broadly adopted for micro-fabrication because of its ability to make precise and rapid processing of almost all types of materials in an ambient environment. However, direct laser writing is typically unsuitable for high-quality 2D nano-patterning. In this work, we introduce a maskless laser nano-lithographic technique that allows us to create regular 2D periodic nanopatterns on glass. Glass is a particularly challenging material since it does not absorb light readily. Our strategy starts with a glass sample being coated with a thin layer of metal, and then irradiated with a series of pulse bursts at progressively increasing fluence levels. This process allows us to sequentially activate a series of tailored physical processes that lead to the formation of regular 2D periodic nanopatterns on glass. The formation mechanism of this nano-patterning is also simulated numerically and further corroborated by a series of control experiments. We also show controllability in forming various shapes and sizes of nanopatterns through tailored fluence doses. Our technique provides a high-speed and low-cost method for glass nanofabrication.
- Published
- 2019