Authors:
Dirk Wortmann
Lehrstuhl fuer Lasertechnik, RWTH Aachen University, Steinbachstrasse 15, 52074 Aachen, Germany

Ju¨rgen Koch
Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V., Hollerithallee 8, 30419 Hannover, Germany

Martin Reininghaus
Lehrstuhl fuer Lasertechnik, RWTH Aachen University, Steinbachstrasse 15, 52074 Aachen, Germany

Claudia Unger
Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V., Hollerithallee 8, 30419 Hannover, Germany

Conny Hulverscheidt
Lehrstuhl fuer Lasertechnik, RWTH Aachen University, Steinbachstrasse 15, 52074 Aachen, Germany

Dmitry Ivanov
Lehr-und Forschungsgebiet Nichtlineare Dynamik, RWTH Aachen University, Steinbachstrasse 15, 52074 Aachen, Germany

Boris N. Chichkov
Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V., Hollerithallee 8, 30419 Hannover, Germany

In this paper, the authors report on the formation of nanobumps and nanojets on thin gold films, induced by single fs-laser pulse irradiation. Experimental results on the structure size and shape depending on the pulse energy and the pulse duration are presented. For the first time, the process of short laser pulse nanostructuring on thin metal films was modeled by molecular dynamic simulations on the scale directly accessible in the experiments. Additionally, pump-probe experiments were performed for in-situ visualization of the structure formation.