In the last years LIPSS based processes leap from the research laboratories to industrial applications, in particular for tribology, polymer mold texturing, colorizing and enhanced biocompatibility. Despite of these applications not all the phenomena underlying LIPSS generation were understood and a comprehensive model to explain all the cases is generally accepted. In this work a phenomenological explanation of the level of regularity achievable when patterning different materials is proposed and discussed. In particular the regularity is correlated to the ratio between the laser wavelength and the decay length of the surface electromagnetic waves induced on the metallic surfaces. Regularity is measured by means of an original parameter, the Dispersion of the LIPSS Orientation Angle (DLOA). DLOA is calculated for different materials and parameters obtained both from original experiments and from literature and the results are the basis of the phenomenological model presented in the work. In the model the effects of the material dielectric permittivity and its dependency by time immediately after the irradiation are simulated and the effects of spot size is critically discussed.

Date Published: 4 March 2019
PDF
Proc. SPIE 10906, Laser-based Micro- and Nanoprocessing XIII, 1090610 (4 March 2019); doi: 10.1117/12.2515553

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10906:
Laser-based Micro- and Nanoprocessing XIII
Udo Klotzbach; Akira Watanabe; Rainer Kling, Editor(s)