Method for Efficient Mass-Production of Surface Textures

Courtesy of Gupta laboratory

Background
Surface texturing has become an important tool for enhancing surface properties, particularly in fields such as solar and wind energy, aeronautics and medicine. Surface texture is typically generated by chemical etching, a costly and time-consuming process that is known not to be very effective for polycrystalline and thin film semiconductors.

Invention Description
Researchers at the University of Virginia have developed novel methods for generating micro- and nano-textured surfaces on a variety of materials — including metals, semiconductors and insulators — using pulsed laser technology.

Using this innovative method, a clean surface specimen is simply placed on a staging platform, and a laser scans over the surface, generating the surface texture and thereby enhancing the surface properties. This surface texture can then be mass-produced by applying industrial manufacturing scale-up techniques or — if the substrate material can be a PDMS film — through embossing.

Advantages
This surface-processing method is advantageous for several fields in which surface properties play a vital role. Using this cost-effective, low-environmental-impact method, surfaces can be generated that:

• Are super-hydrophobic, for enhanced fluid flow, for anti-icing on wind turbines or airplane wings, and other desired uses.
• Offer enhanced light-trapping abilities, for increased efficiency in photovoltaics.
• Have larger surface areas, which can enhance heat transfer, catalytic activity, adhesive bond strength and tissue growth (biomedical applications).
• Contain sharp geometries, which can enhance field emissions and thin film/fiber growth.