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M. Akram, S. Bashir, S. Jalil, M. ElKabbash, F. Aumayr, A. Ajami, W. Husinsky, K. Mahmood, M. Rafique, C. Guo:
"Femtosecond laser induced periodic surface structures for the enhancement of field emission properties of tungsten";
Optical Materials Express, 9 (2019), 3183 - 3192.

Direct femtosecond laser ablation enables the maskless fabrication of nano- and
micro-scale structures on variety of materials. A typical example is the formation of femtosecond
Laser Induced Periodic Surface Structures (fs-LIPSSs), which can lead to strong modification
in electrical, optical, wetting, and field emission properties of materials. Here, we study the
field emission properties of fs-LIPSSs. We created fs-LIPSSs and fs-LIPSSs covered with nanoand
micro-scale structures at different laser fluences on Tungsten (W) and showed that these
structures offer significant enhancement in electron field emission properties. We provide a
phenomenological model to explain the enhancement of electron emission parameters. The
enhancement in the field emission properties of laser irradiated W is explained based on the
convergence of electric field lines at the ridges of the fs-LIPSSs and fs-LIPSSs covered with
nanoscale structures, which in turn, enhances the local field intensity and the electron emission
parameters. The direct fabrication of 1D subwavelength structures is an important step towards
the creation of low-cost cathodes for various potential applications.