Tailored engineering of crystalline surface enabled by ion-irradiation-assisted femtosecond laser ablation

Ion irradiation and femtosecond laser ablation (FLA) are powerful technologies for micro-/nano-machining of transparent materials. In this work, we demonstrate selective surface engineering of optical crystal surface via ion irradiation and subsequent FLA, namely ion-irradiation-assisted FLA. Based on the material modification effects in the ion-irradiated layers, different types of surface structuring characterized by grooves, nanogratings or sub-micron tracks are selectively induced by FLA. It is revealed that the ion-electron interaction induced localized lattice defects and related property modulation in target crystal play important roles in the formation and evolution of laser ablation regimes. Furthermore, the formation process of high-spatial-frequency nanograting is illustrated with the periodical enhancement of local field through the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons, which is experimentally supported through the measurements of transmission electron microscope and energy-dispersive spectroscopy. Our findings further clarify the ion- and laser-matter interactions and the correlation between these processes and surface modifications. The approach proposed in this work shows potential applications in the rapid fabrication of hybrid and versatile surface structures on crystalline materials.