Extremely High-Quality Periodic Structures on ITO Film Efficiently Fabricated by Femtosecond Pulse Train Output from a Frequency-Doubled Fabry–Perot Cavity

Abstract

This study developed a novel frequency-doubled Fabry–Perot cavity method based on a femtosecond laser of 1030 nm, 190 fs, 1 mJ, and 1 kHz. The time interval (60–1000 ps) and attenuation ratio (0.5–0.9) between adjacent sub-pulses of the 515 nm pulse train were able to be easily adjusted, while the efficiency was up to 50% and remained unchanged. Extremely high-quality low-spatial-frequency LIPSS (LSFL) was efficiently fabricated on an indium tin oxide (ITO) film using a pulse train with a time interval of 150 ps and attenuation ratio of 0.9 focused with a cylindrical lens. Compared with the LSFL induced by the primary Gaussian pulse, the uniformity of the LSFL period was enhanced from 481 ± 41 nm to 435 ± 8 nm, the divergence of structural orientation angle was reduced from 15.6° to 3.7°, and the depth was enhanced from 74.21 ± 14.35 nm to 150.6 ± 8.63 nm. The average line edge roughness and line height roughness were only 7.34 nm and 2.06 nm, respectively. The depths and roughness values were close to or exceeded those of resist lines made by the interference lithography. Compared with the common Fabry–Perot cavity, the laser energy efficiency of the pulse trains and manufacturing efficiency were enhanced by factors of 19 and 25. A very colorful “lotus” pattern with a size of 30×28 mm2 was demonstrated, which was covered with high-quality LSFLs fabricated by a pulse train with optimized laser parameters. Pulse trains can efficiently enhance and prolong the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons, inhibit deposition particles, depress ablation residual heat and thermal shock waves, and eliminate high-spatial-frequency LIPSS formed on LSFL, therefore, producing extremely high-quality LSFL on ITO films.