Jianghong Yao

Generation and erasure of femtosecond laser-induced periodic surface structures on nanoparticle-covered silicon by a single laser pulse.

We experimentally show that the generation and erasure of femtosecond laser-induced periodic surface structures on nanoparticle-covered silicon inducted by irradiation with a single laser pulse (800 nm, 120 fs, linear polarization) depend on the pulse fluence. We propose that this is due to competition between periodic surface structuring originating from the interference of incident light with surface plasmon polaritons and surface smoothing associated with surface melting. Experimental results are supported by theoretical analysis of transient surface modifications based on combining the two-temperature model and the Drude model.

Fabrication and characterization of periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide using femtosecond laser pulses

We present in this letter the fabrication and characterization of thermally stable type II waveguides in Z-cut periodically poled lithium niobate crystals. The waveguides were fabricated by using a femtosecond laser and were utilized for second harmonic generation. Our experiments have shown that a quasiphase matching wavelength of 1548.2nm, a tuning bandwidth of 2nm, and a tuning temperature range of 150.4±1.6°C can be achieved.

Generation and evolution of plasma during femtosecond laser ablation of silicon in different ambient gases

Generation and evolution of plasma during femtosecond laser ablation of silicon are studied by steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopy in air, N 2 , SF 6 , and under vacuum. The plasma is generated faster than 200 ps (time resolution of our experiment) after excitation and mainly contains atoms and monovalent ions of silicon. Time-resolved spectra prove that silicon ions are faster than the silicon atoms which may be attributed to Coulomb repulsion and a local electric field when they are ejected from the silicon surface. During plasma evolution, ambient gas causes a confinement effect that enhances the dissociation of ambient gas molecules and the re-deposition of the removed material and leads to higher intensity and longer lifetime of the emission spectra. In SF 6 , a chemical reaction increases the plasma density and weakens the re-deposition effect. The different processes during plasma evolution strongly influence microstructure formation.

Threshold Dependence of Deep- and Near-subwavelength Ripples Formation on Natural MoS2 Induced by Femtosecond Laser.

Deep sub-wavelength ripples (DSRs) and near sub-wavelength ripples (NSRs) with uniform periods of ~160 nm and ~660 nm generated at the MoS2-vacuum interface is reported for the first time by the processing of femtosecond laser (800 nm, 120 fs, 1 kHz) in this paper. The DSRs and NSRs formation fluence thresholds are experimentally determined as 160 mJ/cm2 and 192 mJ/cm2, respectively. In addition, the ripple period is insensitive to the pulse number. Moreover, Raman analyses show that the MoS2 lattice in the irradiated area does not exhibit oxidation at room environment and the crystalline representation is well preserved in NSRs region. We attribute our result to the joint interactions of the spallation and sublimation of layered MoS2 together with the laser induced surface plasmon polaritons and propose an explanation to the threshold dependence of the ripple period. Our study provides some insights for ultrafast laser-matter interactions and indicates a simple effective method for future nano-fabrication of MoS2.

Time-resolved photoluminescence of silicon microstructures fabricated by femtosecond laser in air

Green photoluminescence (PL) from silicon microstructures fabricated by femtosecond laser in air was studied at different temperature by time-resolved spectroscopy. The PL decay profiles are well fitted by a stretched exponential function: I(t)=I(0)*exp[-(t/τ)β]. The dependence of the decay time constant τ and of the stretching index β on PL photon energy and on the temperature is investigated. A model of transport and recombination of the carriers is introduced as a possible explanation of the stretched exponential decay. The nonradiative recombination rate of the localized carriers, which is dependent on the carrier density and influenced by the trapping site density and the temperature, is deduced to be responsible for this kind of decay.

Thermodynamic analysis of growth of ternary III-V semiconductor materials by molecular-beam epitaxy

Thermodynamic models for molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) growth of ternary Ⅲ-Ⅴ semiconductor materials are proposed. These models are in agreement with our experimental materials InGaP/GaAs and InGaAs/InP, and reported GaAsP/GaAs and InAsP/InP in thermodynamic growth. The lattice strain energy △G and thermal decomposition sensitive to growth temperature are demonstrated in the models simultaneously. △G is the function of the alloy composition, which is affected by flux ratio and growth temperature directly. The calculation results reveal that flux ratio and growth temperature mainly influence the growth process. Thermodynamic model of quaternary InGaAsP/GaAs semiconductor material is discussed also.

Refractive index changes by electrically induced domain reversal in a c-cut slab of LiNbO3

Refractive index changes caused by electrically induced domain reversal are investigated by light diffraction from domains in periodically poled LiNbO3. Light diffraction from this type of refractive index modulation is calculated theoretically thus providing an effective and damage-free technique to characterize periodically poled materials. Examplarily, the refractive index modulation and the duty cycle are determined. The refractive index modulation obtained by electrically induced domain reversal is in the magnitude of 10−5.

Giant circular dichroism of large-area extrinsic chiral metal nanocrecents

In this work, we demonstrate the strong extrinsic chirality of the larger-area metal nanocrescents by experiments and simulations. Our results show that the metal nanocrescent exhibits giant and tunable circular dichroism (CD) effect, which is intensively dependent on the incident angle of light. We attribute the giant extrinsic chirality of the metal nanocrescent to the excitation efficiencies difference of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) modes for two kinds of circularly polarized light at a non-zero incident angle. In experiment, the largest CD of 0.37 is obtained at the wavelength of 826 nm with the incident angle of 60°. Furthermore, the CD spectra can be tuned flexibly by changing the metal nanocrescent diameter. Benefitting from the simple, low-cost and mature fabrication process, the proposed large-area metal nanocrescents are propitious to application.

Direct visualization of light confinement and standing wave in THz Fabry-Perot resonator with Bragg mirrors

We report for the first time the ability to perform time resolved imaging of terahertz (THz) waves propagating within a Fabry-Perot resonator on a LiNbO3 slab. Electro-optic effect is used to record the full spatiotemporal evolution of THz fields inside the resonator. In addition to revealing the real-space behavior, the data further demonstrate the confinement and the standing wave modes of THz in the cavity in frequency domain. The experimental results are in good agreement with numerical simulations. Using the coherent imaging technique to gain real-time information about a resonator system provides a unique path to study the physics of optical cavity.

Second harmonic generation in periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide using femtosecond laser pulses

We present in this paper the fabrication and characterization of thermally stable double line waveguides in Z-cut periodically poled Lithium Niobate crystals. The waveguides were fabricated by using a femto-second laser, and utilized for second-harmonic generation. Our experiments have shown that a quasi-phase matching wavelength of 1548.2 nm, a tuning bandwidth of 2 nm, and a tuning temperature range of 150.4±1.6°C can be achieved.