Submicron-dot chains at and beneath surfaces of glasses written by a picojoule 12-fs laser scanning microscope

A near-infrared 12-fs laser scanning microscope was employed for structuring glass surfaces. A Ti–sapphire laser operated at 85 MHz and emitted light pulses at wavelengths around 800 nm. A focused laser beam with a mean power of less than 27 mW, corresponding to a maximal pulse energy of 318 pJ, was applied for line scanning at and beneath the surfaces of cover slips as well as of a filter glass BG39. Periodic arrangements of dots along the processed lines were produced through digital control of the scanner. Depending on the pulse energy and the scan speed, the diameter of the dots ranged from 550 nm down to 100 nm. For the cover slips, the dots occur as cavities after wet chemical etching. For BG39, which exhibits strong near-infrared absorption, both chains of cavities and bumps can be generated without any etching process. The result shows that structures with a size down to 1/8λ can be generated, probably through nonlinear single-photon processes confined within the focal volume.