Femtosecond laser nanostructuring of titanium metal towards fabrication of low-reflective surfaces over broad wavelength range

We investigated experimentally the formation of laser induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) on titanium (Ti) metal upon irradiation with linearly polarized Ti:Sapphire femtosecond (fs) laser pulses of ∼110 fs pulse width and 800 nm wavelength in air and water environments. It is observed that initially formed random and sparsely distributed nano-roughness (nanoholes, nanoparticles and nanoprotrusions) gets periodically structured with increase in number of laser pulses. In air at lower fluence, we observed the formation of high spatial frequency-LIPSS (HSFL) oriented parallel to the laser polarization direction, whereas at higher fluence formation of low spatial frequency-LIPSS (LSFL) were observed that are oriented perpendicular to the incident laser polarization. In water two types of subwavelength structures were observed, one with spatial periodicity of ∼λ/15 and oriented parallel to laser polarization, while the other oriented perpendicular to laser polarization with feature size of λ/4. The optimal conditions for fabricating periodic sub-wavelength structures are determined by controlling the fluence and pulse number. The fs laser induced surface modifications were found to suppress the specular reflection of the Ti surface over a wide wavelength range of 250-2000 nm to a great extent.