Terahertz Time-Domain Study of Silver Nanoparticles Synthesized by Laser Ablation in Organic Liquid

We report the investigation of laser-synthesized Ag nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) in an organic liquid environment by using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) technique. Colloidal Ag-NPs with an average diameter of 10 nm in two-propanol solution through nanosecond pulsed laser ablation were synthesized. THz-TDS measurements were performed on different volumetric concentration of Ag-NPs suspensions placed in 2-mm path length quartz cuvette. Due to the dispersive and highly absorptive nature of the nano liquids, an approach based on extracting the optical properties through the changes in amplitude and phase solely around the main peak of THz waveform is developed. This approach allowed for an accurate estimation of the complex refractive index of the Metallic-NPs suspension for the different prepared volumetric concentrations. In addition, using Maxwell-Garnett theory, the NP concentration is also extracted. This method shows that the time-domain nature of the THz pulse measurement technique is extremely useful in instances where slight variations in highly dispersive samples need to be investigated. � 2016 IEEE

CO2 laser polishing of microfluidic channels fabricated by femtosecond laser assisted carving

In this study, we investigate the effects of CO2 laser polishing on microscopic structures fabricated by femtosecond laser assisted carving (FLAC). FLAC is the peripheral laser irradiation of 2.5D structures suitable for low repetition rate lasers and is first used to define the microwell structures in fused silica followed by chemical etching. Subsequently, the bottom surface of patterned microwells is irradiated with a pulsed CO2 laser. The surfaces were characterized using an atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) in terms of roughness and high quality optical imaging before and after the CO2 laser treatment. The AFM measurements show that the surface roughness improves more than threefold after CO2 laser polishing, which promises good channel quality for applications that require optical imaging. In order to demonstrate the ability of this method to produce low surface roughness systems, we have fabricated a microfluidic channel. The channel is filled with polystyrene bead-laden fluid and imaged with transmission mode microscopy. The high quality optical images prove CO2 laser processing as a practical method to reduce the surface roughness of microfluidic channels fabricated by femtosecond laser irradiation. We further compared the traditional and laser-based glass micromachining approaches, which includes FLAC followed by the CO2 polishing technique. � 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd