TY - JOUR

T1 - Resonant-Plasmon-Assisted Subwavelength Ablation by a Femtosecond Oscillator

AU - Shi, Liping

AU - Iwan, Bianca Stella

AU - Ripault, Quentin

AU - Andrade, José R.C.

AU - Han, Seunghwoi

AU - Kim, Hyunwoong

AU - Boutu, Willem

AU - Franz, Dominik

AU - Nicolas, Rana

AU - Heidenblut, Torsten

AU - Reinhardt, Carsten

AU - Bastiaens, Bert

AU - Nagy, Tamas

AU - Babuskin, Ihar

AU - Morgner, Uwe

AU - Kim, Seung Woo

AU - Steinmeyer, Günter

AU - Merdji, Hamed

AU - Kovačev, Milutin

N1 - Funding information: We are thankful for the funding support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under Grant No.KO 3798/4-1, from the Centre for Quantum Engineering and Space-Time Research (QUEST), from Lower Saxony through Quanten-und Nanometrologie (QUANOMET, project Nanophotonik) from the National Research Foundation of the Republic of Korea (NRF-2012R1A3A1050386), from the European Union through the VOXEL FET Open, from the French Ministry of Research through the ANR grants NanoImagine, IPEX, HELLIX, PACHA and from the C'NANO research program through the NanoscopiX grant, and the LABEX PALM through the grants Plasmon-X and HILAC. We acknowledge the financial support from the French ASTRE program through the NanoLight grant and the support from the DGA RAPID program through the SWIM LASER grant. L. S. is grateful to Professor Jeremy Baumberg from the University of Cambridge for stimulating discussion.

PY - 2018/2

Y1 - 2018/2

N2 - We experimentally demonstrate the use of subwavelength optical nanoantennas to assist a direct nanoscale ablation using the ultralow fluence of a Ti:sapphire oscillator through the excitation of surface plasmon waves. The mechanism is attributed to nonthermal transient unbonding and electrostatic ablation, which is triggered by the surface plasmon-enhanced field electron emission and acceleration in vacuum. We show that the electron-driven ablation appears for both nanoscale metallic as well as dielectric materials. While the observed surface plasmon-enhanced local ablation may limit the applications of nanostructured surfaces in extreme nonlinear nanophotonics, it, nevertheless, also provides a method for nanomachining, manipulation, and modification of nanoscale materials. Collateral thermal damage to the antenna structure can be suitably avoided, and nonlinear conversion processes can be stabilized by a dielectric overcoating of the antenna.

AB - We experimentally demonstrate the use of subwavelength optical nanoantennas to assist a direct nanoscale ablation using the ultralow fluence of a Ti:sapphire oscillator through the excitation of surface plasmon waves. The mechanism is attributed to nonthermal transient unbonding and electrostatic ablation, which is triggered by the surface plasmon-enhanced field electron emission and acceleration in vacuum. We show that the electron-driven ablation appears for both nanoscale metallic as well as dielectric materials. While the observed surface plasmon-enhanced local ablation may limit the applications of nanostructured surfaces in extreme nonlinear nanophotonics, it, nevertheless, also provides a method for nanomachining, manipulation, and modification of nanoscale materials. Collateral thermal damage to the antenna structure can be suitably avoided, and nonlinear conversion processes can be stabilized by a dielectric overcoating of the antenna.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85042146206&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.9.024001

DO - 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.9.024001

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85042146206

VL - 9

JO - Physical Review Applied

JF - Physical Review Applied

SN - 2331-7019

IS - 2

M1 - 024001

ER -