Secondary electron yield reduction of copper after 355 nm ultrashort pulse laser ablation

Nanostructured surfaces exhibit remarkable chemical, physical and microbiological properties and have therefore various technical and industrial applications. The ultrashort laser pulse irradiation (wavelength λ = 355 nm, pulse duration Δt p = 12 ps, repetition rate f = 100 kHz) of copper samples with appropriate laser parameters results in the formation of a micro- and nanostructured surfaces. The influence of these hierarchically textured surfaces on the secondary electron yield (SEY) was studied especially with regard to their morphological and geometrical properties. Specific SEY changes are caused by both, the shape and the depth of the microstructures, as well as the morphology of the formed nanostructures; that can be either compact flower head-like nanostructures, non-compact filament-shaped nanostructures, molten and resolidified spherical structures, or minor modified surfaces. The measured SEY as a function of the primary electron energy is correlated with the surface topography that forms upon laser irradiation. The SEY decreases with increasing accumulated laser fluence and ablated volume, respectively. Especially flower-head-like nanostructures can be produced at high laser power (P ≥ 400 mW) and low scanning velocity (v ≤ 10 mm/s) and represent a surface with strongly reduced SEY maximum as low as 0.7.