  Dewetting of thin metal films is one of the most widespread method for
functional plasmonic nanostructures fabrication. However, simple
thermal-induced dewetting does not allow to control degree of nanostructures
order without additional lithographic process steps. Here we propose a novel
method for lithography-free and large-scale fabrication of plasmonic
nanostructures via controllable femtosecond laser-induced dewetting. The method
is based on femtosecond laser surface pattering of a thin film followed by a
nanoscale hydrodynamical instability, which is found to be very controllable
under specific irradiation conditions. We achieve control over degree of
nanostructures order by changing laser irradiation parametrs and film
thickness. This allowed us to exploit the method for the broad range of
applications: resonant light absorbtion and scattering, sensing, and potential
improving of thin-film solar cells.
