Santiago Camacho, PhD

Dr. Santiago Camacho-López received both his B.Sc. (1992) and M.Sc. (1994) degrees in

Physics from Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa in Mexico, and his Ph.D.

(2000) degree in Physics from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine,

University of London, UK. He started to work in the ultrashort pulse lasers field at

University of Toronto, Canada, where he was a postdoctoral fellow (2000-2003). In year

2003 he joined the Department of Optics in CICESE, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.

Since then, he is a full-time researcher and he chaired the Department of Optics (2010-

2017). His research interests include processing of materials using ultrashort pulse lasers,

nonlinear optics, and biophotonics. Dr. Camacho-López holds (2013-present) an Adjunct

Professor position in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of California

Riverside (UCR). He is also a member of the editorial board of the journal Photonics and

Lasers in Medicine (http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/plm); he is within the program

committee for the European Conference on Biomedical Optics (ECBO). He is a member

of the National Research System (SNI 2).

Laser-Induced Periodic Surface Structures (LIPSS): Basics and Applied

Aspects *

Santiago Camacho López1*, Paulina Segovia Olvera2, Marco A Camacho López3

1Departmento de Óptica, CICESE, México

2Cátedras CONACyT, CICESE, México 3Facultad de Química, UAEMex, México

LIPSS are surface structures that can be formed by delivering either a single or a series of laser

pulses on a solid target. A single laser beam is incident on the surface and as a consequence

periodic surface structures form. The first structures of this kind were reported by Birnbaum [1],

since then the topic has attracted much attention and different groups have focused their efforts on

both the fundamental science and the applied aspects behind LIPSS formation. In 1983 Sipe and

Van Driel [2] reported a first principles model to try to explain LIPSS formation. Although, many

research groups around the world have investigated intensively there is still no clear, and some

controversy remains on, what are the physical mechanisms that govern LIPSS formation. This

phenomenon is universal and has been reported in the literature for various materials including

metals, semiconductors, dielectrics and ceramics. LIPSS have been classified as low spatial

frequency (LSFL) and high spatial frequency (HSFL); the LSFL are periodic structures whose

period Λ is between half and a full wavelength of the incident light, while the HSFL has a period

smaller than half the wavelength [3]. The orientation of the LIPSS follows the incident laser beam

polarization, but it can be either parallel or perpendicular to the linear polarization, and in some

cases a single pulse produced structure can show both LIPSS orientations. It is worth mentioning

that circular polarization does not produce LIPSS, but it has rather been observed to produce a

nanocraters pattern.

We will present an overview of LIPSS formation for different pulsed lasers from

nanosecond to femtosecond pulse duration. Concerning our own research we will discuss LIPSS

formation in transition metal thin films, where we have demonstrated rapid LIPSS formation for

laser fluence well below the ablation threshold. A distinct feature in our work is the fact that LIPSS

can be constituted by highly localized metallic oxide growth or, if required, we can preserve the

nature of the starting material [4]. Current research in our group is exploring on the possible

plasmonic origin and applications of these periodic surface structures.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge partial support for this work by AFOSR grant FA9550-15-1-0142.

References

1. Milton Birnbaum. Journal of Applied Physics 36, 3688 (1965).

2. J. E. Sipe, J. F. Young, J. S. Preston, and H. M. van Driel. Phys. Rev. B 27, 1141 (1983).

3. J. Bonse, J. Krüger, S. Höhm, and A. Rosenfeld. Journal of Laser Applications 24, 042006 (2012).

A. Reyes-Contreras, M. Camacho-Lopez, S. Camacho-Lopez, O. Olea-Mejia, A Esparza-Garcia, J. G. Bañuelos-

Muñeton, and M. A. Camacho-Lopez. Optical Materials Express 7, 1777 (2017).

*e-mail: camachol@cicese.mx