Double- and Multi-Femtosecond Pulses Produced by Birefringent Crystals for the Generation of 2D Laser-Induced Structures on a Stainless Steel Surface.

Laser-induced textures have been proven to be excellent solutions for modifying wetting, friction, biocompatibility, and optical properties of solids. The possibility to generate 2D-submicron morphologies by laser processing has been demonstrated recently. Employing double-pulse irradiation, it is possible to control the induced structures and to fabricate novel and more complex 2D-textures.

Incubation during laser ablation with bursts of femtosecond pulses with picosecond delays.

We report on an experimental investigation of the incubation effect during irradiation of stainless steel with bursts of ultrashort laser pulses. A series of birefringent crystals was used to split the pristine 650-fs pulses into bursts of up to 32 sub-pulses with time separations of 1.5 ps and 3 ps, respectively.