Controllable Femtosecond Laser-Induced Dewetting for Plasmonic Applications

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel, lithography-free femtosecond laser technique for precise, large-scale fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures, enabling control over their order and broad application potential.

Contribution

The authors develop a controllable femtosecond laser-induced dewetting method for fabricating plasmonic nanostructures without lithography, with tunable nanostructure order based on laser parameters.

Findings

Controlled nanostructure order achieved by adjusting laser parameters.

Method applicable for resonant light absorption and sensing.

Potential to enhance thin-film solar cell efficiency.

Abstract

Dewetting of thin metal films is one of the most widespread method for functional plasmonic nanostructures fabrication. However, simple thermal-induced dewetting does not allow to control degree of nanostructures order without additional lithographic process steps. Here we propose a novel method for lithography-free and large-scale fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures via controllable femtosecond laser-induced dewetting. The method is based on femtosecond laser surface pattering of a thin film followed by a nanoscale hydrodynamical instability, which is found to be very controllable under specific irradiation conditions. We achieve control over degree of nanostructures order by changing laser irradiation parametrs and film thickness. This allowed us to exploit the method for the broad range of applications: resonant light absorbtion and scattering, sensing, and potential improving of thin-film solar cells.