title: Laser printed nano-gratings: orientation and period peculiarities.
abstract: Understanding of material behaviour at nanoscale under intense laser excitation is becoming critical for future application of nanotechnologies. Nanograting formation by linearly polarised ultra-short laser pulses has been studied systematically in fused silica for various pulse energies at 3D laser printing/writing conditions, typically used for the industrial fabrication of optical elements. The period of the nanogratings revealed a dependence on the orientation of the scanning direction. A tilt of the nanograting wave vector at a fixed laser polarisation was also observed. The mechanism responsible for this peculiar dependency of several features of the nanogratings on the writing direction is qualitatively explained by considering the heat transport flux in the presence of a linearly polarised electric field, rather than by temporal and spatial chirp of the laser beam. The confirmed vectorial nature of the light-matter interaction opens new control of material processing with nanoscale precision.
authors.affiliation: Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Savanoriu Ave. 231, Vilnius LT-02300, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Valdemar
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Stankevič
authors.affiliation: Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Savanoriu Ave. 231, Vilnius LT-02300, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Gediminas
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Račiukaitis
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie - CNR, P.za Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bragheri
authors.affiliation: Center for Micro-Photonics, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, John St., Hawthorn, Melbourne VIC 3122, Australia.
authors.forename: Xuewen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Laser Physics Centre, Research School of Physics &Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
authors.forename: Eugene G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Gamaly
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie - CNR, P.za Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Osellame
authors.affiliation: Center for Micro-Photonics, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, John St., Hawthorn, Melbourne VIC 3122, Australia.|Center of Nanotechnology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Saulius
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Juodkazis