Analysis of the resolution enhancement in laser-induced TiO2 nanostructured materials

Laser direct writing titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanostructured materials have been widely studied in recent years. Analysis of the kinetics of laser-induced titanium oxidation and an exploration of the key factors for improving resolution are meaningful. In this paper, we propose a simulation model of TiO2/Ti film to study the kinetics of the laser-induced titanium oxidation process. We compared the time-varying oxide thickness with temperature, and analyzed the oxidation degrees, maximum temperature, and the laser-induced Mott potential distribution along the radial direction for laser power changes from 2.8 mW to 3.4 mW. We found that the laser-induced Mott potential is the more crucial factor in the determination of the final oxidation degrees. An effective way to improve the laser machining resolution is to apply the threshold power and short-duration pulse laser irradiates on the film repetitively. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement