The mechanism of the fine ripples, perpendicular to laser polarization, on the surface of (semi)transparent materials with period smaller than the vacuum wavelength, λ, of the incident radiation is proposed and experimentally validated. The sphere-to-plane transformation of nanoplasma bubbles responsible for the in-bulk ripples accounts for the fine ripples on the surface of dielectrics and semiconductors. The mechanism is demonstrated for 4H:SiC and sapphire surfaces using 800 nm/150 fs and 1030 nm/300 fs laser pulses. The ripples are pinned to the smallest possible standing wave cavity inside material of refractive index n. This defines the corresponding period, Λ = (λ/n)/2, of a light standing wave with intensity, E(2), at the maxima of which surface ablation occurs. The mechanism accounts for the fine ripples at the breakdown conditions. Comparison with ripples recorded on different materials and via other mechanisms using femtosecond pulses is presented and application potential is discussed.

We demonstrate that F+ centres (oxygen vacancy with a trapped electron) are induced by femtosecond laser scribing of a crystalline Al2O3 wafer and that they can be fully annealed at 1100 °C. The corresponding photoluminescence band at 325 nm which is induced by the femto second laser structuring of a sapphire surface is extinct after heat treatment. Thermal activation of oxygen diffusion in sapphire can explain the observation. The potential of pre-textured sapphire in lighting and micro-optical applications is discussed.

Direct laser write of volume Bragg gratings with diffraction efficiency (absolute) ∼90% is demonstrated using Gauss-Bessel laser beams in fused silica glass. Axial multiplexing of ∼ 90 µm long segments of modified optical material was demonstrated and thick Bragg gratings of aspect ratio depth/period ≈234 were achieved with period d = 1.5 µm. Typical fabrication scanning speeds were up to 50 mm/s for gratings with cross sections up to five millimeters made within 1 h time. Potential applications of high efficiency Bragg gratings in a low nonlinearity medium such as silica are discussed.

We report on surface structuring of sapphire, silicon carbide, and silicon by femtosecond laser pulses in multipulse irradiation mode. The formed ripples on the flat surface or on the vertical walls with hierarchical structures whose feature sizes are ranging from the irradiation wavelength down to similar to 50 nm are prospective templates for surface enhanced Raman scattering after coating with plasmonic metals. We study complex patterns of fine ripples with periods Lambda(r), as small as lambda/Rp, where Rp similar or equal to 3 - 5. The mechanisms suggested for such Rp values are discussed: temperature and density of breakdown plasma, angle of incidence, mechanism of second harmonic generation (SHG) and absorption. Predictions of the surface and bulk models of ripple formation are compared with experimental values of Rp-factor. We propose a model of ripple formation on the surface, which is based on the known in-bulk sphere-to-plane formation of breakdown plasma in the surface proximity. In semiconductor 4H:SiC normal ripples with periods 190 and 230 nm were recorded with 800 nm and 1030 nm fs-laser pulses respectively. We show that the period of ripples is defined by the dielectric properties of crystalline (solid) phase rather than the molten phase in the case of silicon. Generation of SHG on the surface of sample and plasma nano-bubbles are discussed: surface-SHG is found not important in ripples' formation as revealed by comparative study of periods on Al2O3 and TiO2 at 800 nm wavelength of irradiation. We propose that ripple periodicity is pinned to the smallest possible standing wave cavity (lambda/n)/2 inside material of refractive index n