{"id":225182,"date":"2017-03-13T16:19:21","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T20:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=225182"},"modified":"2017-03-22T16:50:42","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T20:50:42","slug":"visualizing-material-effects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/visualizing-material-effects\/","title":{"rendered":"Imaging at the speed of light"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tiny micro- and nanoscale structures within a material\u2019s surface are invisible to the naked eye, but play a big role in determining a material\u2019s physical, chemical, and biomedical properties. Over the past few years, Chunlei Guo and his research team at the University of Rochester have found ways to manipulate those structures by irradiating laser pulses to a material\u2019s surface. They\u2019ve altered materials to make them repel water<\/a>, attract water<\/a>, and absorb great amounts of light<\/a>\u2014all without any type of coating.<\/p>\n

Now, Guo, Anatoliy Vorobyev, and Ranran Fang, researchers at the University\u2019s Institute of Optics, have advanced the research another step. They\u2019ve developed a technique to visualize, for the first time, the complete evolution of micro- and nanoscale structural formation on a material\u2019s surface, both during and after the application of a laser pulse.<\/p>\n

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Electron microscope images of micro- and nanostructures found within a material\u2019s surface after application of femtosecond laser pulses (Image credit\/Guo Lab)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAfter we determined that we could drastically alter the property of a material through creating tiny structures in its surface, the next natural step was to understand how these tiny structures were formed,\u201d Guo says. \u201cThis is very important because after you understand how they\u2019re formed you can better control them.\u201d<\/p>\n