• SPECIAL SESSION (LPM)

SP L1)  Laser based functionalization of surfaces

Session Organizer: Andreas Ostendorf (Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany)

 

Surface engineering and tuning the functionality of surfaces is one of the most challenging tasks in modern technical applications. There are several opportunities and advantages of laser processing of surfaces due to the flexibility of laser parameters. Surfaces can be structured or ablated on the micro- or nanoscale in order to achieve a specific functionality, e.g. modification of optical or mechanical behavior, and surfaces can be modified, e.g. mechanically compressed, hardened or electronically functionalized like in annealing processes using excimer lasers. Finally, the chemical composition of surfaces can be tuned by laser irradiation which is important for many organic materials and biomedical applications.
However, the difficulty is how to structure surfaces by a serial method, provided by laser spot focussing. This special session on surface functionalization will provide solutions for these questions.

 

 

 

SP L2)  Advanced beam manipulation techniques

Session Organizers: Javier Solis (Instituto de Optica, CSIC, Spain); Razvan Stoian (Universite Jean MONNET, France); Craig Arnold (Princeton University, USA)

 

Laser beam manipulation techniques have been crucial for the development of laser processing since the advent of lasers. They include, in a broad sense, those utilized in order to modify/control the spatial intensity/phase distribution, the spectrum or the temporal profile of a laser beam at a given spatial location, or along its propagation.  In addition to conventional beam shaping tools, such as diffractive optical elements, axicons, light pipes, micro-lens arrays, etc., newer tunable optical elements, such as spatial light modulators or acousto-optical elements, have enabled a wide variety of approaches to control the spatial and temporal characteristics of laser beams with real-time feedback. This is essential in order to control the energy deposition profile in adaptive schemes or even the structural transformation path, as recently demonstrated for the case of programmable tailoring of laser pulse intensity envelopes. Optical tweezers based in the use of “exotic” beam profiles (Bessel, Laguerre, Hermite-Gaussian, etc.) dynamic pre-compensation of aberrations, focal volume shaping in laser processing and microscopy or polarization temporal shaping are other examples of advanced beam manipulation techniques exploiting the use of tunable optical elements. This special session will focus on sate of the art advanced laser beam manipulation techniques and applications including both spatial and temporal control approaches. Original works on ultrafast laser pulse temporal shaping, hybrid non-linear/thermal laser processing, adaptive optics applications, generation and applications of “exotic” laser beams, DOE´s for parallel laser processing, and in general contributions showing progress towards the development of laser beam manipulation techniques capable of offering high degree of precision or solutions for specific material
processing issues will be considered.

 

 

 

SP L3)  Laser fabrication of nanomaterials and nanostructures

Session Organizers: Michel Meunier (Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada); Hong Minghui (National University of Singapore and Data Storage Institute, Singapore); Stephan Barcikowski (Laser Zentrum Hannover, Germany)

 

Lasers offer clear advantages for processing various types of materials on the nanoscale. Nanoparticles and nanostructures generated by laser ablation of a solid in vacuum, air or in a liquid show unique properties in its structures, purity and stability. Alternatively, laser fragmentation of micro/nanomaterials suspended in a liquid or a solid leads to materials with activated surfaces. Other topics include laser nanostructuring based on near field approaches, nano-template and nano-mold fabrication for imprinting, laser interference and laser thermal lithography. Special focus is given on the applications of these nanomaterials and nanostructures in nanoplasmonics, metamaterials, THz devices, and biomedicine. Original papers are solicited showing progress in the basic understanding and technology development of laser nanofabrication process and their applications in various fields such as nanophotonics, nanoelectronics and biomedicine.