Zhuo-Chen Ma

A SERS-active microfluidic device with tunable surface plasmon resonances†

A surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)‐active microfluidic device with tunable surface plasmon resonances is presented here. It is constructed by silver grating substrates prepared by two‐beam laser interference of photoresists and subsequent metal evaporation coating, as well as PDMS microchannel derived from soft lithography. By varying the period of gratings from 200 to 550 nm, surface plasmon resonances (SPRs) from the metal gratings could be tuned in a certain range. When the SPRs match with the Raman excitation line, the highest enhancement factor of 2×107 is achieved in the SERS detection. The SERS‐active microchannel with tunable SPRs exhibits both high enhancement factor and reproducibility of SERS signals, and thus holds great promise for applications of on‐chip SERS detection.

Maskless laser tailoring of conical pillar arrays for antireflective biomimetic surfaces

Herein, we report a facile approach for rapid and maskless production of subwavelength structured antireflective surfaces with high and broadband transmittance-direct laser interference ablation. The interfered laser beams were introduced into the surface of a bare optical substrate, where structured surfaces consisting of a micropillar array were produced by two-step laser irradiation in the time frame of seconds. A multiple exposure of the two-beam interference approach was proposed instead of multiple-beam interference to simply realize planar patterns of a high aspect ratio. Tall sinusoidal pillars were created and shaped by pulse shot number control. As an example of the application, zinc sulfide substrates were processed with the technology, from which high transmission at an infrared wavelength, over 92%, at normal incidence was experimentally achieved.

Measurement of Two-Photon Absorption Cross Section of Metal Ions by a Mass Sedimentation Approach

The photo-reduction of metal ions in solution induced by femtosecond laser is an important and novel method for fabricating three-dimensional metal microstructures. However, the nonlinear absorption cross section of metal ions remains unknown because its measurement is difficult. In the present study, a method based on Two-Photon Excited Sedimentation (TPES) is proposed to measure the two-photon absorption cross section (TPACS) of metal ions in solution. The power-squared dependence of the amount of sediment on the excitation intensity was confirmed, revealing that 800 nm femtosecond laser induced reduction of metal ions was a two photon absorption process. We believe that the proposed method may be applied to measure the TPACS of several metal ions, thereby opening a new avenue towards future analysis of two-photon absorption materials.

Intense Femtosecond Laser-Mediated Electrical Discharge Enables Preparation of Amorphous Nickel Phosphide Nanoparticles

Reported here is a high-efficiency preparation method of amorphous nickel phosphide (Ni-P) nanoparticles by intense femtosecond laser irradiation of nickel sulfate and sodium hypophosphite aqueous solution. The underlying mechanism of the laser-assisted preparation was discussed in terms of the breaking of chemical bond in reactants via highly intense electric field discharge generated by the intense femtosecond laser. The morphology and size of the nanoparticles can be tuned by varying the reaction parameters such as ion concentration, ion molar ratio, laser power, and irradiation time. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy results demonstrated that the nanoparticles were amorphous. Finally, the thermogravimetric-differential thermal analysis experiment verified that the as-synthesized noncrystalline Ni-P nanoparticles had an excellent catalytic capability toward thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate. This strategy of laser-mediated electrical discharge under such an extremely intense field may create new opportunities for the decomposition of molecules or chemical bonds that could further facilitate the recombination of new atoms or chemical groups, thus bringing about new possibilities for chemical reaction initiation and nanomaterial synthesis that may not be realized under normal conditions.

Silicon three-dimensional structures fabricated by femtosecond laser modification with dry etching

In this paper, a maskless, high efficiency, and flexible technology is developed to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) microstructures on a silicon wafer, which is based on the combination of femtosecond laser modification and subsequent dry etching. The silicon atoms in 2D patterned areas were insufficiently oxidized after femtosecond laser irradiation. Complex 3D structures can be fabricated on the silicon wafer after etching, such as micro gears, comb drive actuators, and micro cantilevers applied in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and micro Fresnel zone plates applied in micro optics. What is more, surface roughness of the laser structured wafer can be improved with increased etching time in the dry etching process. This technology shows its unique capacity to fabricate various 3D microstructures for applications in MEMS and micro optics.