Fabrication of 50-nm period gratings on GaN in air through plasmonic near-field ablation induced by ultraviolet femtosecond laser pulses.

We demonstrate the formation of a homogeneous nanograting with 50-nm period on GaN in air, using ultraviolet femtosecond (fs) laser pulses at 266 nm in the recently developed two-step ablation technique. The experimental results have shown that the ablation technique successfully controlled the spatial mode of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) excited on the target surface and decreased the grating period in accordance with the short wavelength of fs laser pulses. Calculation for a model target reproduces well the laser-wavelength dependent periods, being in good agreement with the observed, and supports the mechanism for nanostructuring.