Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
Laser induced periodic surface structure can be understood as a universal phenomenon which occurs when high intensity pulses are absorbed near the surface of solids or liquids. The phenomenon occurs on metals, semiconductors and insulators because of the interference between the incident pulse and an induced “radiation remnant”. This scattered field may be enhanced by the existence of true surface modes such as surface plasmons or phonon-polaritons but this is not essential. The universality characteristics include beam polarization, since we show that circularly polarized light can induce surface ripples, with the damage structure showing a dependence on the sense of rotation. We also present time resolved results of the formation of the ripples to illustrate the essential dynamical processes that occur.