Polarization-independent surface nanostructuring by femtosecond laser irradiation via microsphere in far field and ambient air

Jingbo Yin; Hao Luo; Tun Cao; Minghui Hong

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-02091-7

Your Location：

Home >

Browse articles >

Polarization-independent surface nanostructuring by femtosecond laser irradiation via microsphere in far field and ambient air

Original Articles

- Polarization-independent surface nanostructuring by femtosecond laser irradiation via microsphere in far field and ambient air
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 15, Issue 4, Pages: 1282-1291(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Pen-Tung Sah Institute of Micro-Nano Science and Technology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
  2.Discipline of Intelligent Instrument and Equipment, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
  3.School of Optoelectronic Engineering and Instrumentation Science, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
  4.Innovation Laboratory for Sciences and Technologies of Energy Materials of Fujian Province (IKKEM), Xiamen 361005, China
- Author bio：
  
  Tun Cao (caotun1806@dlut.edu.cn)
  Minghui Hong (elehmh@xmu.edu.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-02091-7
  CLC：
- Received：14 April 2025，
  
  Revised：2025-09-28，
  
  Accepted：11 October 2025，
  
  Online First：11 February 2026，
  
  Published：30 April 2026
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
Yin, J. B. et al. Polarization-independent surface nanostructuring by femtosecond laser irradiation via microsphere in far field and ambient air. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 1282-1291 (2026).
DOI：

Yin, J. B. et al. Polarization-independent surface nanostructuring by femtosecond laser irradiation via microsphere in far field and ambient air. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 1282-1291 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-02091-7.

摘要

Abstract

Ultrafast lasers have garnered significant interest in the realm of surface nanofabrication. However

their dynamic electric field distribution is influenced by the polarization direction when pursuing high machining precision

which leads to high polarization dependence of laser nanostructuring. Here

polarization-independent surface nanostructuring is realized on Sb

thin films by femtosecond laser irradiation via a microsphere in the far field and ambient air. The formation of nanogrooves is ascribed to surface thermal stress during melting

re-solidification

and super-cooling under high-repetition-rate femtose

cond laser irradiation. The influence of materials melting and ablation on the electric field distribution during the laser processing is analyzed. In the molten state

the distribution of the electric field remains unaffected by polarization

enabling the realization of polarization-independent nanoprocessing based on the thermal stress induced by a temperature gradient. The feature sizes of surface nanostructures can be precisely adjusted by varying laser fluence

and the minimum size down to approximately 38 nm (λ/27) is achieved. This innovative laser nanostructuring technique

operating in the far field and ambient air

holds considerable promise for advancing next-generation nanofabrication.

关键词

Keywords

references

Wang, K. Y. et al. Micro- and nanostruc tured lead halide perovskites: from materials to integrations and devices. Adv. Mater. 33 , 2000306 (2021)..

Rahmani, M. et al. Nonlinear frequency conversion in optical nanoantennas and metasurfaces: materials evolution and fabrication. Opto-Electron. Adv. 1 , 180021 (2018)..

Fallegger, F., Schiavone, G. & Lacour, S. P. Conformable hybrid systems for implantable bioelectronic interfaces. Adv. Mater. 32 , 1903904 (2020)..

Jiang, X. X. et al. Fabrication of coaxial plasmonic crystals by focused ion beam milling and electron-beam lithography. Mater. Lett. 100 , 192–194 (2013)..

Chong, T. C., Hong, M. H. & Shi, L. P. Laser precision engineering: from microfabrication to nanoprocessing. Laser Photonics Rev. 4 , 123–143 (2010)..

Yin, J. B. & Hong, M. H. Seed-guided high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser oxidation for functional three-dimensional silicon structure fabrication. Opt. Laser Technol. 179 , 111348 (2024)..

Ma, Z. C. et al. Femtosecond-laser direct writing of metallic micro/nanostructures: from fabrication strateg ies to future applications. Small Methods 2 , 1700413 (2018)..

Chen, L. W. et al. Microsphere enhanced optical imaging and patterning: from physics to applications. Appl. Phys. Rev. 6 , 021304 (2019)..

Lin, Z. Y. & Hong, M. H. Femtosecond laser precision engineering: from micron, submicron, to nanoscale. Ultrafast Sci. 2021 , 9783514 (2021)..

Ueno, K. et al. Nanogap-assisted surface plasmon nanolithography. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 1 , 657–662 (2010)..

Li, Y. & Hong, M. H. Parallel laser micro/nano-processing for functional device fabrication. Laser Photonics Rev. 14 , 1900062 (2020)..

Jiang, Q. L. et al. Periodic transparent nanowires in ITO film fabricated via femtosecond laser direct writing. Opto-Electron. Sci. 2 , 220002 (2023)..

Yin, J. B. et al. Formation of armored silicon nanowires array via high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser oxidation for robust surface-enhanced Raman scattering detection. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 16 , 48667–48675 (2024)..

Wang, Z. B. et al. Optical virtual imaging at 50 nm lateral resolution with a white-light nanoscope. Nat. Commun. 2 , 218 (2011)..

Boneberg, J. et al. Optical near-fields of triangular nanostructures. Appl. Phys. A 89 , 299–303 (2007)..

Wu, G. X., Zhou, Y. & Hong, M. H. Sub-50 nm optical imaging in ambient air with 10× objective lens enabled by hyper-hemi-microsphere. Light Sci. Appl. 12 , 49 (2023)..

Lin, Z. Y. et al. Microsphere femtosecond laser sub-50 nm structuring in far field via non-linear absorption. Opto-Electron. Adv. 6 , 230029 (2023)..

Gao, L., Zhang, Q. M. & Gu, M. Femtosecond laser micro/nano processing: from fundamental to applications. Int. J. Extrem. Manuf. 7 , 022010 (2025)..

Xu, Y. S. et al. Optical near fields for ablation of periodic structures. Opt. Lett. 48 , 2841–2844 (2023)..

Almeida, V. R. et al. Guiding and confining light in void nanostructure. Opt. Lett. 29 , 1209–1211 (2004)..

Asgari Sabet, R. et al. Laser nanofabrication inside silicon with spatial beam modulation and anisotropic seeding. Nat. Commun. 15 , 5786 (2024)..

Li, Z. Z. et al. Super-stealth dicing of transparent solids with nanometric precision. Nat. Photonics 18 , 799–808 (2024)..

Lin, Z. Y., Ji, L. F. & Hong, M. H. Approximately 30 nm nanogroove formation on single crystalline silicon surface under pulsed nanosecond laser irradiation. Nano Lett. 22 , 7005–7010 (2022)..

Liu, W. et al. Manipulation of LIPSS orientation on silicon surfaces using orthogonally polarized femtosecond laser double-pulse trains. Opt. Express 27 , 9782–9793 (2019)..

Lin, Z. Y. et al. Realization of ~10 nm features on semiconductor surfaces via femtosecond laser direct patterning in far field and in ambient air. Nano Lett. 20 , 4947–4952 (2020)..

Li, Z. Z. et al. O-FIB: far-field-induced near-field breakdown for direct nanowriting in an atmospheric environment. Light Sci. Appl. 9 , 41 (2020)..

Qiao, M., Yan, J. F. & Jiang, L. Direction controllable nano-patterning of titanium by ultrafast laser for surface coloring and optical encryption. Adv. Opt. Mater. 10 , 2101673 (2022)..

Jacassi, A. et al. Scanning probe photonic nanojet lithography. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 9 , 32386–32393 (2017)..

Dong, W. L. et al. Wide bandgap phase change material tuned visible photonics. Adv. Funct. Mater. 29 , 1806181 (2019)..

Kawata, S. et al. Finer features for functional microdevices. Nature 412 , 697–698 (2001)..

Wang, X. J. et al. Laser manufacturing of spatial resolution approaching quantum limit. Light Sci. Appl. 13 , 6 (2024)..

Resl, J. et al. Optimizing laser-induced phase transformations in Sb 2 S 3 thin films: simulation framework and experiments. J. Appl. Phys. 136 , 173108 (2024)..

Kim, K. K. et al. Transparent wearable three-dimensional touch by s elf-generated multiscale structure. Nat. Commun. 10 , 2582 (2019)..

Yin, J. B. et al. Thermal-assisted laser fabrication of broadband ultralow reflectance surface by combining Marangoni flow with in situ deposition. Nanomaterials 13 , 480 (2023)..

Huang, J. et al. Design of Light-driven biocompatible and biodegradable microrobots containing Mg-based metallic glass nanowires. ACS Nano 18 , 2006–2016 (2024)..

Tian, K. et al. Graphene microflower by photothermal Marangoni-induced fluid instability for omnidirectional broadband photothermal conversion. ACS Nano 18 , 29760–29770 (2024)..

Huang, H. X. et al. Near-field-regulated ultrafast laser supra-wavelength structuring directly on ultrahard metallic glasses. Adv. Mater. 36 , 2405766 (2024)..

Lei, Y. H. et al. High speed ultrafast laser anisotropic nanostructuring by energy deposition control via near-field enhancement. Optica 8 , 1365–1371 (2021)..

Huang, L. Y. et al. Sub-wavelength patterned pulse laser lithography for efficient fabrication of large-area metasurfa ces. Nat. Commun. 13 , 5823 (2022)..

Hartemann, F. V. et al. Nonlinear ponderomotive scattering of relativistic electrons by an intense laser field at focus. Phys. Rev. E 51 , 4833–4843 (1995)..

Joglekar, A. P. et al. Optics at critical intensity: applications to nanomorphing. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 101 , 5856–5861 (2004)..

Sugioka, K. & Cheng, Y. Ultrafast lasers—reliable tools for advanced materials processing. Light Sci. Appl. 3 , e149 (2014)..

Liu, K. et al. Non-volatile dynamically switchable color display via chalcogenide stepwise cavity resonators. Opto-Electron. Adv. 7 , 230033 (2024)..

Views

Downloads

CSCD

Alert me when the article has been cited

Submit

Tools

Publicity Resources

No data

Related Author

No data

Related Institution

No data

⁰