PhD defense of Anthony Abou Saleh

"Relationship between self-organization and creation/resorption of microstructural defects under ultrashort laser irradiation"

Abstract

Irradiation of materials by ultrashort laser pulses triggers anisotropically structured arrangement of matter on the nanoscale, the so-called laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS), or ‘ripples’. Ultrashort laser energy deposited and distributed inhomogeneously in the material launches local thermal stresses and transient phase changes yielding microstructural modifications.
This thesis focuses on the role of irradiated surface alteration as well as in-depth microstructural modifications in promoting LIPSS formation, by establishing a correlation between self-organization of matter and defect generation taking into account crystalline orientation. Since LIPSS are generated at the threshold of phase transition, then the correlation with defects formation is relevant.
An experimental study coupled with molecular dynamic MD simulations performed in the University of Virginia suggest that surface alteration generated by a single pulse irradiation of monocrystalline Cr samples in the spallation regime is likely to play a main role in triggering high-spatial frequency LIPSS generation upon irradiation by multiple laser pulses. Atomic force microscopy as well as computational results suggested that the nanoscale surface features are crystalline orientation dependent. The higher surface roughness generated by the first laser pulse activates scattering of the laser light and the local field enhancement upon irradiation by the second laser pulse, leading to the formation of much more pronounced high-spatial frequency structures on the (100) surface as compared to (110) one. An extended in-depth experimental study, using electron backscattered and transmission microscopy, combined with large-scale two-temperature model TTM-MD simulations revealed that Cr (110) is more likely to get damaged. It is found that laser-induced defects can alter the surface topography and the region beneath it which can impact in turn the roughness center features promoting high-spatial frequency structures formation.
In order to infer the phase transition undergone in the LIPSS region, a high resolution microstructural analysis approach coupled with hydrodynamic calculations is employed, including epitaxial regrowth and nanocavitation. High-spatial frequency structures formation is found to be the result of periodic nanovoids trapped beneath the surface as well as nanocavities emerged at the surface on fcc materials.
Furthermore, since optical feedback in LIPSS is often evoked, the behavior of dynamical surfaces was probed by photoemission electron microscopy and supported by electromagnetic calculations. A periodic character of photoelectrons emitted from nanoholes was unveiled, which in turn verified a modulated energy deposition.
The performed work not only contributes to the progress towards the general goal of untangling the complex multiscale phenomenon of the LIPSS formation, but unlocks a new experimental setup to generate unconventional structures with extreme periodicities (~60 nm), which offers new opportunities in ultrafast laser processing of metals.

Committee

The defense will be done in english