Large-Scale Laser Fabrication of Antifouling Silicon-Surface Nanosheet Arrays via Nanoplasmonic Ablative Self-Organization in Liquid CS₂ Tracked by a Sulfur Dopant

Abstract

Large-scale surface nanopatterning of a commercial silicon (Si) wafer in the form of regular 1D arrays of high-aspect-ratio vertical nanosheets (NSs) for antifouling and other potential promising optoelectronic, nanophotonic, and sensing applications was performed via multishot picosecond IR-laser ablation under a 5-mm-thick carbon disulfide liquid layer. Specifically, the nanopatterned surface layer demonstrates the broad ultralow mid-IR transmittance and the high content of sulfur, carbon, and even oxygen in the modified submicron-thick top layer, preventing the appearance of a Staphylococcus aureus bacterial biofilm. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy studies exhibit the anticorrelating inner versus outer surface abundance of donor sulfur versus adverse carbon and oxygen components and the amorphous structure of the sulfur-hyperdoped NSs atop their crystalline basements. These NSs indicate their appearance via the interfacial vapor/plume bubble-mediated codeposition of Si ablation nanoplumes from the regular trenches and sulfur-containing products of carbon disulfide decomposition in the bubble. Numerical modeling indicates the nanoplasmonic origin of the Si NSs, self-limited in both the 100 nm periods and the submicron heights.