Successful direct route production of silicon nanostructures from diatomaceous earth (DE) on a single crystalline silicon wafer via the magnesiothermic reduction reaction is reported. The formed porous coating of 6 µm overall thickness contains silicon as the majority phase along with minor traces of Mg, as evident from SEM-EDS and the Focused Ion Beam (FIB) analysis. Raman peaks of silicon at 519 cm⁻¹ and 925 cm⁻¹ were found in both the film and wafer substrate, and significant intensity variation was observed, consistent with the SEM observation of the directly formed silicon nanoflake layer. Microstructural analysis of the flakes reveals the presence of pores and cavities partially retained from the precursor diatomite powder. A considerable reduction in surface reflectivity was observed for the silicon nanoflakes, from 45% for silicon wafer to below 15%. The results open possibilities for producing nanostructured silicon with a vast range of functionalities.

The direct laser synthesis of periodically nanostructured 2D transition metal dichalcogenide (2D-TMD) films, from single source precursors, is presented here. Laser synthesis of MoS₂ and WS₂ tracks is achieved by localized thermal dissociation of Mo and W thiosalts, caused by the strong absorption of continuous wave (c.w.) visible laser radiation by the precursor film. Moreover, within a range of irradiation conditions we have observed occurrence of 1D and 2D spontaneous periodic modulation in the thickness of the laser-synthesized TMD films, which in some cases is so extreme that it results in the formation of isolated nanoribbons with a width of ~200 nm and a length of several micrometers. The formation of these nanostructures is attributed to the effect that is known as laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS), which is caused by self-organized modulation of the incident laser intensity distribution due to optical feedback from surface roughness. We have fabricated two terminal photoconductive detectors based on nanostructured and continuous films and we show that the nanostructured TMD films exhibit enhanced photo-response, with photocurrent yield increased by three orders of magnitude as compared to their continuous counterparts.

The use of aluminum alloy AA2024-T4 (Russian designation D16T) in applications requiring a high strength-to-weight ratio and fatigue resistance such as aircraft fuselage often demands the control and modification of surface properties. A promising route to surface conditioning of Al alloys is laser treatment. In the present work, the formation of ripples and conical microstructures under scanning with femtosecond (fs) laser pulses was investigated. Laser treatment was performed using 250 fs pulses of a 1033 nm Yb:YAG laser. The fluence of the pulses varied from 5 to 33 J/cm². The scanning was repeated from 1 to 5 times for different areas of the sample. Treated areas were evaluated using focused ion beam (FIB)- scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging and sectioning, energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and confocal laser profilometry. The period of laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) and the average spacing of conical microstructures were deduced from SEM images by FFT. Unevenness of the treated areas was observed that is likely to have been caused by ablation debris. The structural and elemental changes of the material inside the conical microstructures was revealed by FIB-SEM and EDX. The underlying formation mechanisms of observed structures are discussed in this paper.