Ablating nanoscale pores in crystalline quartz using laser-induced micro-plasmas in tri-layer structures

Abstract

We demonstrate a novel approach for achieving rapid, consistent, and controllable micro-pore fabrication in single-crystalline quartz. These micro-pores are essential for applications in biology, i.e., studying ion channels in general and mechano-sensitive channels (MSC) in particular. The fabrication process consists of direct material ablation using pulsed UV light from a 193 nm excimer laser. These pulses ablate single-crystalline quartz chips by burning a laser-induced plasma in a tri-layer structure. Controllable plasma confinement and thus pore size is achieved by sandwiching a thin layer of a selected organic solution between the quartz chip and different substrates. This solution causes the confined micro-plasma to generate special ablation conditions, to create uniformly sized and shaped nanopores.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jul 27, 2020
Source ID
10.1364/ome.395494

Entities

People

  • Eric Stava
  • Hyun-cheol Shin
  • Jon Rodriguez
  • José R. Sánchez Pérez
  • Max G. Lagally
  • Minrui Yu
  • Paul V. Gwozdz
  • Robert H Blick

Organizations

  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • German Research Foundation
  • National Science Foundation
  • United States Department of Energy

Tags

Readers

  • Nanocomposite Materials Science
  • Nanofabrication and Microfabrication.
  • Thermal Physics or Thermal Science.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Directed Energy - Pulsed-Laser Deposition