Self-organization in a chromium thin film under laser irradiation

Self-organization of chromium on glass was observed during laser ablation of the metal film with partially overlapping laser pulses. The beam of a nanosecond pulse laser tightly focused to a line was applied to the back-side ablation of the chromium thin film on a glass substrate. While the line ablated with a single laser pulse had sharp edges on both sides with ridges of the melted metal, the use of partially overlapping pulses formed a complicated structure made of the metal remaining from the ridges. Regular structures of ripples were developed in a certain range of laser fluence and pulse overlap. The ripple period could be controlled from 2.5 to 4 μm by variation of the processing parameters. Various experimental techniques were applied to test the structures, and different models of the ripple formation in the thin metal film were considered. The initial quasi-periodical formation started because of dewetting of thin liquid metal films on the glass substrate after its melting. Similar to the evaporation of liquid films, the small perturbation in the ridge thickness was able to induce instability in evaporation of the thin melted metal film. Freezing of the nonequilibrium state between laser pulses was one of the stabilizing factors in self-organization of the metal.