Physical Society Colloquium

Laser-assisted surface engineering

Anne Kietzig

Department of Chemical Engineering
McGill University

Liquid surface interactions are abundant in our everyday lives, ranging from rain droplets falling on surfaces to the lubrication of engines. Nature provides many prominent examples that illustrate how to master surface wetting and use its principles favorably to achieve certain functionalities. My research builds upon biomimetic principles when trying to understand and subsequently alter the behavior of liquids in contact with solid surfaces treated by innovative ultrafast laser micromachining. Of particular interest thereby are laser-matter interactions that not only lead to modifications in surface topology but also in surface chemistry. To further guide material selection and the choice of laser-processing parameters, a solid understanding of the physical phenomena governing surface wetting is required. This seminar will show some of our recent results regarding femtosecond laser micromachining and wetting as well as highlight the former as a high precision, microfabrication technique, which allows the production of surface structures on two length scales (on the micro- and nanometer scale) in one process step. This last characteristic is especially important in biomimetic studies, since many interesting functionalities of natural surfaces can be traced back to one common feature: a surface structure on several length scales. With regard to actual engineering applications the efforts focus on reducing/tailoring adhesion, drag or friction on various metallic and polymeric surfaces.