Laser‐Material Interaction of Nano‐patterned Ceramic Surfaces

The proposed research is based on previous work in the PI’s laboratory which has led to the development of a low‐cost and high throughput process by which self‐assembled nanostructures can be produced due to a morphological instability created by intermixing of rare earth oxides on yttria‐stabilized zirconia (YSZ) single crystal surfaces leading to the formation of nanoislands or nanobars to relieve strain energy. The most remarkable feature of this type of self‐assembly is that it does not require lithography or any other process to guide the nanostructure formation. Furthermore, the nanostructures tend to align along certain crystallographic directions on the substrate surface, a process dictated by the elastic modulus anisotropy of the substrate. The major focus of the proposed research is to improve the ordering of these nanostructures by surface engineering while further deepening our understanding of the mechanism by which this selfassembly phenomenon takes place. Additionally, exploratory research will be conducted on the coupling of femto‐second laser on these surfaces to study novel effects such as metastable state formation, enhancement of ordering of nano‐structures, field confinement, collective motion and plasmon coupling.