The HiLASE Centre laser micromachining (LMM) team led by Petr Hauschwitz created the periodic nanostructures you see in the video below:
From a certain angle, these otherwise inconspicuous structures appear iridescent as light diffracts and refracts depending on the angle between the observer and the light source. These particular nanostructures were created using the thin-disk laser system PERLA on a stainless-steel surface.
They can thus be used for aesthetic purposes, but that is not the only way they can be applied. Because of these properties, they can also be used to create protective holograms that distinguish an authentic product from a counterfeit.
Moreover, this is just one of the many different applications of laser micromachining that we at the HiLASE Centre are focusing on.
