Nanostructuring of solids with femtosecond laser pulses

ABSTRACT Investigations of possibilities for nanostructuring wit h femtosecond laser pulses of dierent materials are re-ported. The aim is to develop a simple laser-based technology for the fabrication of two- and three-dimensionalnanostructures with structure sizes on the order of several hundred nanometers. This is required for many appli-cations in photonics, for the fabrication of photonic crystals and microoptical devices, for data storage, displays,etc. Sub-wavelength structuring of metals by direct femtosecond laser ablation is performed. The band gapdependence of the minimum structure size for transparent materials is identi“ed.Keywords: material processing, femtosecond lasers, nanostructuring 1. INTRODUCTION Rapidprogressofultrafastlasersopensup newapplicationsandpossibilitiesforhigh-precisionmaterialprocessingthat can not be realized with traditional laser system s. Femtosecond lasers have established themselves asexcellent and universal tools for microstructuring of solid materials by direct ablative writing.