Maxwell Meets Marangoni—A Review of Theories on Laser‐Induced Periodic Surface Structures

Abstract Surface nanostructuring enables the manipulation of many essential surface properties. With the recent rapid advancements in laser technology, a contactless large‐area processing at rates of up to m 2 s −1 becomes feasible that allows new industrial applications in medicine, optics, tribology, biology, etc. On the other hand, the last two decades enable extremely successful and intense research in the field of so‐called laser‐induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS, ripples). Different types of these structures featuring periods of hundreds of nanometers only—far beyond the optical diffraction limit—up to several micrometers are easily manufactured in a single‐step process and can be widely…