High aspect ratio nanochannel machining using single shot femtosecond Bessel beams

We report high aspect ratio nanochannel fabrication in glass using single-shot femtosecond Bessel beams of sub-3 mu J pulse energies at 800 nm. We obtain near-parallel nanochannels with diameters in the range 200-800 nm, and aspect ratios that can exceed 100. An array of 230 nm diameter channels with 1.6 mu m pitch illustrates the reproducibility of this approach and the potential for writing periodic structures. We also report proof-of-principle machining of a through-channel of 400 nm diameter in a 43 mu m thick membrane. These results represent a significant advance of femtosecond laser ablation technology into the nanometric regime. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3479419]