EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

Functionalized surfaces can be obtained by fabricating deterministic or stochastic structures with features in the micrometer, submicrometer and nanometer range. In particular, significantly enhanced surface properties can be produced by using micrometer scaled features covered by nano- or sub-micrometer structures, which occurs typically in natural examples. This presentation summarizes...

Direct Laser Interference Patterning (DLIP) is a versatile technique which allows for the fabrication of nano- to micrometric scale periodic structures over large areas in a variety of materials. The sinusoidal shape of the intensity profile at the sample surface induces a periodic alternating pattern of molten and non-molten fringes, whose periodicity and width can be tuned by modifying the...

Silicate glasses are commonly used materials in numerous application fields, such as microelectronics, photovoltaics, optical components, and biomedical devices due to their outstanding combination of mechanical, optical, thermal, and chemical properties [1,2]. Functionalization through nano/micropatterning can provide new or enhanced surface properties, expanding the applicability of such...

Plasmonic metasurfaces based on the extraordinary optical transmission effect (EOT) can be deliberately designed to efficiently transmit specific spectral bands from the visible to the long-infrared regimes, but can also provide high electric field confinement in regions much smaller than the operation wavelength. Such nano/microphotonic devices (which consist of subwavelength periodically or...

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are materials with low optical absorption in the visible [1], which makes them particularly suitable for key applications in information technologies (displays…) and energy harvesting (photovoltaics...). Among them, Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) still plays, in spite of In scarcity, a crucial role, especially in niche applications where the chemical stability in...

Phase switching in chalcogenide alloys (containing Ge, Te and Sb) is a commercially used technique for optical and electronic data storage in phase change memory (PCM) devices. The unique behavior of those materials exploited in PCM applications is an ability of being quickly molten by an optical laser pulse, quenched into a glassy (amorphous) state and subsequently switched back to a...

This paper presents the experimental results obtained along the laser processing of some Al alloys for architectural applications. Hidden/open cavities are performed using the laser beams to improve the folding behavior of some metallic plates using an abkant equipment. The influencing factors (sheet thickness, cavities’ geometry and laser parameters) induce different structural changes in the...

Thanks to the non-linear absorption nature of ultrafast laser-matter interaction, femtosecond lasers offer a means to modify materials in their volume and to induce localized density changes, self-organized nanoscale patterns and phase transitions. Specifically, laser-induced crystallization has been reported for a variety of materials and exposure conditions, and ultrashort pulses have been...

TeO2-based glass have large optical nonlinearities and a wider transparency window, showing second order harmonic generation (SHG) that are promising photonics applications.
Here, we investigate the physical mechanism leading the formation of self-organized nanostructures under femtosecond laser exposures of a TeO2-based glass surface and subsurface under different laser parameters.
In...

In nature, high-pressure phases of silica are found in meteoritic craters resulting from high-velocity impacts. Studying these phases in a laboratory setting remains a tedious task, as it requires high-pressure generation, from tens of Giga-Pascal (GPa) to Tera-Pascal (TPa). Diamond anvil cell (DAC) is commonly used for high-pressure generation but suffers from intrinsic limitations of volume...

The demand for miniaturization of electronics and geometrical footprint reduction stresses the need for novel manufacturing processes and materials. Laser-Induced Forward Transfer (LIFT) of nanoparticle-based conductive inks answers to this demand by increasing the printing speed and quality, as well as by enhancing the resolution and electrical properties in the printed raster. Ink...

The recent advances in nanomaterials and micro-fabrication processes have fostered the rapid growth of flexible electronics over the past few years. Resulting applications, ranging from flexible displays and sensors, to biometric devices and healthcare, have already showcased transformational advantages in terms of form factor, weight and durability. In this study, Laser-Induced Forward...

Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) is a non-invasive in vivo imaging technique that is based on mapping and characterizing multiscale diffusion processes in biological tissues. It is a powerful scientific and diagnostic tool, which enables the exploration of white matter in the human brain. Increasingly complex models to analyze DWI data and to create brain tractographies are...

3D printing technologies for pharmaceutical manufacturing provide new opportunities for personalized medicine and on-demand tailored drug products, such as implants and other dosage forms. This work presents our recent achievements in developing a viable manufacturing process for printed personalized dosage forms onto thin films. Laser-Induced Forward Transfer (LIFT) printing technology has...

Current freeform microfabrication methods are either sequential two-dimensional layering processes, or are experimental methods that have difficulty in producing at industrially viable speed three-dimensional parts of dense metal with a spatial resolution of one micrometre or less. We show that metal casting provides an alternative approach for the three-dimensional freeform fabrication of...

The fabrication of two eutectic ceramic systems (MgAl2O4-MgO and Y2O3-MgO) with fine fibrous microstructure by laser-heated floating zone (LFZ) method for optimization of their mechanical properties was studied. The low growth rate causes coarsening the fibre interspacing which is detrimental for the hardness. Gradual enhancement of hardness happened for eutectic ceramics fabricated at higher...

L-PBF, for Laser Powder Bed Fusion, is an additive manufacturing process, which consists in successively melting layers of powdered material with a laser. The process features very short interactions between the raw material (powder) and the laser, resulting in very high solidification and cooling rates. As a result, the generated microstructures are usually far from equilibrium. During...

Due to the advancing miniaturization and the trend towards downsizing of components, bores on complex surfaces with small diameters and high aspect ratios are increasingly required. Typical examples can be found in medical technology for the machining of complex contoured implants and in the aerospace industry to produce cooling holes in turbine blades. The conventional process chain to...

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a widely used industrial ceramic because of its excellent properties which makes it useful for a wide range of applications. The regular industrial process, to manufacture these wide and complex parts, has been successfully developed since the ’90s. However, for some specific applications, the component design could be improved by additive manufacturing. As one of...