Abstract:
We investigate the formation of diversiform micro-/nanostructures in High-Pressure High-Temperature (HPHT) synthetic singlecrystal diamond by tight-focusing 200 fs regeneratively amplified Ti:
Sapphire laser pulses centered at λ = 800 nm. Ablated samples of synthetic
single crystal nanodiamond and their acetate replicas are analyzed using
scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Using pulse energies that are
significantly above the threshold for permanent change, it is shown from
this work that amplified femtosecond pulses are capable of producing
controlled modification of HPHT single-crystal diamond at size scales
below the diffraction limit and provided negligible collateral heating and
shock-wave damage. This is attributed to the low thermal losses and
negligible hydrodynamic expansion of the ablated material during the
femtosecond laser pulse. It is shown that low pulse energy is a key factor for
the accurate and precise machining of micropattems
