ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews experimental data and theoretical interpretations on laser-induced surface structures—also called laser ripples. Many investigations concerned with surface damage by laser irradiation have indicated that the structures that form on surfaces can exhibit a considerable degree of order. One can divide such structures, observed on the surface of metals, dielectrics, semiconductors, into two categories. The categories are resonant periodic structures (rps) and non-resonant periodic structures. Resonant periodic structures were observed in the very first microscopical investigations of the surfaces of samples that underwent melting under the action of intense, linearly polarised, laser radiation. Significant progress in the investigation of rps structures was made possible by the analysis of the diffraction pattern obtained when illuminating the irradiation zone with a probing laser source. The reflectogram method enabled the monitoring of rps kinetics during the action of the laser pulse.
