Nanofabrication with Pulsed Lasers

Abstract

An overview of pulsed laser-assisted methods for nanofabrication, which are currently developed in our Institute (LP3), is presented. The methods compass a variety of possibilities for material nanostructuring offered by laser–matter interactions and imply either the nanostructuring of the laser-illuminated surface itself, as in cases of direct laser ablation or laser plasma-assisted treatment of semiconductors to form light-absorbing and light-emitting nano-architectures, as well as periodic nanoarrays, or laser-assisted production of nanoclusters and their controlled growth in gaseous or liquid medium to form nanostructured films or colloidal nanoparticles. Nanomaterials synthesized by laser-assisted methods have a variety of unique properties, not reproducible by any other route, and are of importance for photovoltaics, optoelectronics, biological sensing, imaging and therapeutics.

Pulsed laser ablation in liquid for micro-/nanostructure generation

“…This is in agreement with our observation that MgO could form hollow particles by pulsed laser ablation of Mg in water but Mg(OH) 2 did not [147]. Similar hollow particles have been observed in the products of pulsed laser ( = 800 nm) ablation of Ti target in water [189], and in the products of pulsed laser ( = 1047 nm) ablation of ␣-Al 2 O 3 in water [17]. And very recently, Yang et al reported the fabrication of hollow carbon and carbide particles by pulsed laser ( = 1064 nm) ablation of tungsten or silicon targets in ethanol or toluene [190,191], which were also considered to form on bubbles.…”

Controlling the Synthesis and Assembly of Silver Nanostructures for Plasmonic Applications

“…113 It is anticipated that controlled laser irradiation of a sample of Ag colloids, in the presence of appropriate chemical species, could lead to a straightforward method for fabricating Ag nanostructures with well-defined and controllable shapes. 114 …”

“…112,114,123–126 Recent mechanistic studies suggest that the reaction, in its most basic configuration, requires citrate, oxygen, and light as shown in Figure 5A. The proposed mechanism is as follows: 56,124 First, LSPR excitation induces photo-oxidation in citrate molecules adsorbed on the surface of the nanostructure.…”

Ultra-high ordered, centimeter scale preparation of microsphere Langmuir films

“…The LB technique provides one of the few methods of preparing organized assemblies of monolayers, which are prerequisite in various applications where high-accuracy spatially resolved methods are needed [33]. Such monolayers made with transparent microspheres find applications in the structuration of bulk substrates, resulting in either nanohole or nanobump arrays [34][35][36][37][38][39], but have also been explored in the literature in the context of electronics, optics, microlithography, chemical sensors, and biosensors [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]. It has been demonstrated that properly coated nanoparticles can be organized at the air-water interface by using the same procedure.…”