Maskless laser nano-lithography of glass through sequential activation of multi-threshold ablation

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.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Apr 01, 2019
Source ID
10.1063/1.5080344

Entities

People

  • A. Y. Vorobyev
  • Billy Lam
  • Chunlei Guo
  • Erik Garcell
  • Jianjun Yang
  • Jihua Zhang
  • Subhash C Singh
  • Yizhuo He
  • Zhibing Zhan

Organizations

  • Army Research Office
  • Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics
  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • Gates Foundation
  • National Science Foundation
  • University of Rochester

Tags

Readers

  • Nanofabrication and Microfabrication.
  • Nuclear and Radiation Engineering.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy