Formation of Subwavelength Periodic Triangular Arrays on Tungsten through Double-Pulsed Femtosecond Laser Irradiation

We present a mask-free strategy for fabricating two-dimensional subwavelength periodic triangular arrays on tungsten, by focusing two orthogonally polarized and temporally delayed femtosecond laser beams using a cylindrical lens. In stark contrast to the commonly observed structures of either a single ablation spot or a one-dimensional grating, we obtained highly uniform periodic triangular arrays on the laser-exposed surface, with three equilateral sides each of 480 nm in length and about 100 nm in modulation depth. The triangular features varied with both the laser energy and the scanning speed. We found that the optical reflectivity of such a surface reduces significantly within the spectral range of 700–2500 nm. The triangular structure morphology can also be controlled by varying the time delay between the two laser beams.