Biomimetic sapphire windows enabled by inside-out femtosecond laser deep-scribing

Abstract Femtosecond laser machining of biomimetic micro/nanostructures with high aspect ratio (larger than 10) on ultrahard materials, such as sapphire, is a challenging task, because the uncontrollable surface damage usually results in poor surface structures, especially for deep scribing. Here, we report an inside-out femtosecond laser deep scribing technology in combination with etching process for fabricating bio-inspired micro/nanostructures with high-aspect-ratio on sapphire. To effectively avoid the uncontrollable damage at the solid/air interface, a sacrificial layer of silicon oxide was employed for surface protection. High-quality microstructures with an aspect ratio as high as 80:1 have been fabricated on sapphire surface. As a proof-of-concept application, we produced a moth-eye inspired antireflective window with sub-wavelength pyramid arrays on sapphire surface, by which broadband (3–5 μm) and high transmittance (98% at 4 μm, the best results reported so far) have been achieved. The sacrificial layer assisted inside-out femtosecond laser deep scribing technology is effective and universal, holding great promise for producing micro/nanostructured optical devices.