Laser-induced periodic surface structures of thin, complex multi-component films

Femtosecond laser-induced regular nanostructures are generated on a complex multilayer target, namely a piece of a commercial, used hard disk memory. It is shown that after single-shot 800-nm irradiation at 0.26 J/cm2 only the polymer cover layer and—in the center—a portion of the magnetic multilayer are ablated. A regular array of linearly aligned spherical 450-nm features at the uncovered interface between cover and magnetic layers appears not to be produced by the irradiation. Only after about 10 pulses on one spot, classical ripples perpendicular to the laser polarization with a period of ≈700 nm are observed, with a modulation between 40 nm above and 40 nm below the pristine surface and an ablation depth only slightly larger than the thickness of the multilayer magnetic film. Further increase of the pulse number does not result in deeper ablation. However, 770-nm ripples become parallel to the polarization and are swelling to more than 120 nm above zero, much more than the full multilayer film thickness. In the spot periphery, much shallower 300-nm ripples are perpendicular to the strong modulation and the laser polarization. Irradiation with 0.49-J/cm2 pulses from an ultrafast white-light continuum results—in the spot periphery—in the formation of 200-nm ripples, only swelling above zero after removal of the polymer cover, without digging into the magnetic film