Spontaneous and artificial direct nanostructuring of solid surface by extreme ultraviolet laser with nanosecond pulses

Nanostructuring can be either spontaneously appearing (such as laser-induced periodic surface structures, and diffraction patterns – for example, in windows of grid proximity-standing at the ablated target-surface) or artificially created (like – as we hoped – interference patterns) that can be in some extend controlled. Due to that a new interferometer (belonging to wave-front division category) with two aspheric mirrors has been developed. Each of these mirrors reflects approximately one half of incoming laser beam and focuses it into a point image. Both focused beams have to intersect each other, and in the intersection region an interference pattern was expected. However, the first tests showed that some other spontaneously appearing interference pattern with substantially larger fringe-pitch is generated. The origin of this idle interference pattern is discussed.

Variable-Temperature Raman Studies of Langmuir-Blodgett Multilayers Using Integrated Optical Techniques

A unique integrated optical device has been constructed which allows the study of submicron films and Langmuir-Blodgett multilayers at both elevated (100°C) and cryogenic (−125°C) temperatures by Raman spectroscopy. The two-stage coupler maintains a constant pressure on the prism used for coupling the incoming laser light into the thin film whose spectrum is desired. A Raman study of L-B multilayers of cadmium arachidate (CdA) in the −125°C to 100°C illustrates the versatility of the integrated optical technique.