Parametric study of the rapid fabrication of glass nanofoam via femtosecond laser irradiation

We present results from a parametric study of femtosecond laser irradiation for the fabrication of glass nanofoam that consists of a three-dimensional mesh of interconnected nanowires. The results show that the final volume of nanofibres depends on the number of laser pulses incident on the substrate and the depth of irradiation. We have been able to fabricate nanofoam with a total volume of >10⁷ µm³, consisting of ∼70 nm diameter glass wires with an average spacing of ∼1 µm.