Cleaning of laser-induced periodic surface structures on copper by gentle wet chemical processing

• Cleaning of 365 nm LIPSS from debris of with microemulsions has been demonstrated. • Excellent debris and particles removal while maintaining the LIPSS pattern were found. • The cleaning mechanism is dominated of selective dissolution of nanomaterial and oxides. Laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) attract considerable attention due to the manifold applications enabled by these self-organised structures ranging from optical colouring to bio-mimicking or wetting effects. The mechanism of LIPSS-formation at metal surfaces includes laser-ablation processes that results in phase transitions, explosive material removal and partial redeposition of the ablation products in the form of nanoscopic debris or even sub-micrometre-sized spherical particles in case of melt ejection. For some applications, these particulates, debris, and microscopic features on top of the periodic surface structures are disadvantageous. We studied wet-chemical cleaning approaches to remove redeposited material from LIPSS to enhance their applicability. LIPSS on copper with a lateral periodicity of ∼ 365 nm, that were fabricated by ultrashort pulse laser exposure (λ: 515 nm, t p : 260 fs), were cleaned with different liquids ranging from solvents to microemulsions. The surface morphologies were characterised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to study the surface topography, the size and density of surface particulates as well as other surface contaminations before and after wet cleaning. The LIPSS surface composition was analysed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy and Energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) at the FIB-cross sections. The different cleaning approaches are classified with respect to their capability to remove particles and contaminations as well as to their influence on the morphology and shape of LIPSS pattern, whereby substantial differences are found. At least two wet-chemical solutions enable the removal of nanoparticles with only minor modification of the LIPSS topography. The main effect of wet cleaning is the detachment of particulates including sub-micrometre-sized spheres due to a gentle and selective etching of the interface region between the LIPSS and the redeposited material that comprise of modified copper and copper oxides.