Femtosecond laser-induced ripple structures on magnesium

Two types of periodic surface structures including micro-ripples and nano-ripples were observed on magnesium after femtosecond laser irradiation, and the color effect was reported by scanning a single laser beam over a large area at near damage threshold fluence. Optical reflectance measurement reve...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Guan, Ying Chun, Zhou, Wei, Li, Z. L., Zheng, H. Y., Lim, G. C., Hong, M. H.
Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/82061
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/39750
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
Description
Summary:Two types of periodic surface structures including micro-ripples and nano-ripples were observed on magnesium after femtosecond laser irradiation, and the color effect was reported by scanning a single laser beam over a large area at near damage threshold fluence. Optical reflectance measurement revealed that the color effect was mainly attributed to the nano-ripples as diffraction gratings, and intensity of the color was affected by morphology of the micro-ripples. AFM and SEM images showed that orientation of the micro-ripples was parallel to laser polarization and the period of the micro-ripples increased with scanning numbers, while the orientation of the nano-ripples was perpendicular to laser polarization and the period of the nano-ripples kept constant as laser sub-wavelength with increasing scanning numbers. These results suggested that formation of the micro-ripples was due to the combined effect of initial surface roughness and near-field interference, while formation of the nano-ripples was caused by the near-field interference between incident light and surface plasmons being excited in the air and metal interface. The potential application of such an effect is further proposed.