Dissipative nanostructures and Feigenbaum’s universality in the “Metal-high-power ultrashort-pulsed polarized radiation” nonequilibrium nonlinear dynamical system

Abstract

We have observed for the first time the phenomenon of a jumplike decrease in the spatial period of a resonance nanorelief formed on a metal surface under the action of a series of high-power femtosecond laser radiation pulses. The residual surface nanorelief formed within the framework of a universal polariton model is related to the generation of a standing-wave pattern due to the interference of the incident wave and the laser-generated surface plasmons. It is established that the formation of resonance nanostructures with two spatial periods differing by a factor of 2 on the surface of titanium is fully consistent with the universal polariton model. The formation of resonance nanostructures with multiple spatial periods in the “metal surface-high-power femtosecond-pulsed radiation” system is also interpreted within the framework of the mathematical model of Feigenbaum’s universality, with a quantity proportional to the number of laser radiation pulses playing the role of a control (bifurcation) parameter.