Femtosecond laser-induced blazed periodic grooves on metals

In this Letter, we generate laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSSs) on platinum following femtosecond laser pulse irradiation. For the first time to our knowledge, we study the morphological profile of LIPSSs over a broad incident angular range, and find that the morphological profile of LIPSSs depends significantly on the incident angle of the laser beam. We show that LIPSS grooves become more asymmetric at a larger incident angle, and the morphological profile of LIPSSs formed at an incident angle over 55 degrees eventually resembles that of a blazed grating. Our study suggests that the formation of the blazed groove structures is attributed to the selective ablation of grooves through the asymmetric periodic surface heating following femtosecond pulse irradiation. The blazed grooves are useful for controlling the diffraction efficiency of LIPSSs. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America