During the formation of sub-wavelength ripples, the initial surface plasmon(SP)-laser interference plays an important role. In this Letter, the effects of grating structures on the distribution of the absorbed laser intensity,SP-laser coupling, free electron distributions, and ablation shapes are investigated by the plasma model, taking into consideration both the laser wave-particle duality and the transient localized changes of material properties.The simulation results show that the grating structures can strongly enhance the energy absorption and SP-laser coupling, which makes the fabrication of sub-wavelength ripples more efficient. It is also found that the ablation shapes, in terms of ablation depths and sub-wavelength ripples periods, are strongly related to the grating structures, which can be used to control micro/nanostructures precisely and uniformly.
We present a doping method to improve the femtosecond laser ablation rate and promote ablation selectivity. Doping transition metal ions, Co2+ or Cu2+, in silicate glass apparently change absorption spectroscopy and induce resonant absorption at wavelengths of 600 and 800 nm, respectively. Comparing with femtosecond laser processing of the same glass without doping, we find that the threshold fluence decreases and the ablation rate increases in resonant absorption in doped silicate glass. Resonant absorption effectively increases multiphoton ionization for seed-free electron generation, which in turn enhances avalanche ionization.
