Standing electron plasma wave mechanism of void array formation inside glass by femtosecond laser irradiation

We investigate the mechanism of formation of periodic void arrays inside fused silica and BK7 glass irradiated by a tightly focused femtosecond (fs) laser beam. Our results show that the period of each void array is not uniform along the laser propagation direction, and the average period of the void array decreases with increasing pulse number and pulse energy. We propose a mechanism in which a standing electron plasma wave created by the interference of a fs-laser-driven electron wave and its reflected wave is responsible for the formation of the periodic void arrays. PACS 61.80.Ba; 42.65.Re; 42.70.Ce; 61.72.Qq; 52.35.Mw     

Ultraviolet conical emission produced by high-power femtosecond laser pulse in transparent media

In this work, supercontinuum conical emission (SC CE) accompanying the filamentation of powerful ultrashort laser pulse in BK₇ glass and fused silica is studied. The SC CE is controlled by the laser power density and the sample thickness, and the minimum SC CE cut-off wavelength is about 309?nm in the BK₇ glass and 237?nm in the fused silica. The angular distributions of the SC CE in the wavelength range less than 510?nm are measured by using a new method, and it cannot be explained by the Cerenkov emission theory but the unabridged X-Waves solution theory. Meanwhile numerical simulations of the propagation of femtosecond laser pulse in sample are performed to provide theoretical support to our results.     

不同材料的受激布里渊散射特性

 采用波长为1.064, 0.532 μm的聚焦高斯光束作为泵浦光,数值求解受激布里渊散射（Stimulated Brillouin Scattering, SBS）放大器型耦合波方程组,比较K9玻璃、熔石英、BK7玻璃、CaF₂的SBS特征参数。研究发现：对于相同的激光参数,不同的介质具有不同的SBS特征,声子寿命长则破坏阈值低,破坏效果明显。SBS过程对CaF₂的破坏效果较明显,导致了介质前表面的破坏,在一定的激光参数和聚焦参数下,焦点附近优先于前表面破坏。SBS过程可以得到脉宽压缩比大于10、强度比泵浦光峰值高5倍以上的Stokes散射光脉冲。相同激光参数下,不同材料压缩效果及散射光相位共轭保真度不同,CaF₂在低泵浦能量时脉宽压缩特性较好;高泵浦能量时,相位共轭保真度较好。固体透明光学材料中可获得大于95%的能量提取效率。     

Formation of conical emission of supercontinuum during filamentation of femtosecond laser radiation in fused silica

The formation of conical emission of supercontinuum during filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses with central wavelengths in a wide range is studied experimentally, numerically, and analytically. The frequency-angular intensity distribution of the spectral components of conical emission is determined by the interference of supercontinuum emission in a filament of a femtosecond laser pulse. The interference of supercontinuum emission has a general character, exists at different regimes of group velocity dispersion, gives rise to the fine spectral structure after the pulse splitting into subpulses and the formation of a distributed supercontinuum source in an extended filament, and causes the decomposition of the continuous spectrum of conical emission into many high-contrast maxima after pulse refocusing in the filament. In spectroscopic studies with a tunable femtosecond radiation source based on a TOPAS parametric amplifier, we used an original scheme with a wedge fused silica sample. Numerical simulations have been performed using a system of equations of nonlinear-optical interaction of laser radiation under conditions of diffraction, wave nonstationarity, and material dispersion in fused silica. The analytic study is based on the interference model of formation of conical emission by supercontinuum sources moving in a filament.     

Ablation of transparent solids during self-limited deposition of diamond-like films from liquid hydrocarbons

A novel effect is studied of self-limitation of the diamond-like film thickness during laser irradiation of the interface of transparent substrates with liquid aromatic hydrocarbons. The interface is exposed through the transparent substrate to radiation of a copper vapor laser (wavelength of 510.6 nm, pulse duration of 20 ns). The thickness of diamond-like film increases linearly to 80-100 nm with the number of laser pulses and then saturates, while the substrate is ablated with nearly constant rate. This ablation rate depends on the thermal expansion coefficient of the substrate (glass, fused silica, sapphire, or CaF₂). The absorption of extinction coefficient of deposited films measured by ellipsometry is of order of 10⁴ cm^-1 and is sufficient to cause the significant heating of the interface. The ablation of the transparent substrates is due to their unequal thermal expansion compared to the diamond-like film having different thermal expansion coefficient. The measured ablation rates scale from 0.2 Å/pulse for glass to 4.5 Å/pulse for CaF₂. A 7m spatial resolution of the ablation process has been demonstrated for fused silica.     

Femtosecond laser-induced microstructure in Foturan glass

We report on the microstructure formation in Foturan glass, induced by 1~kHz, 120 femtosecond laser irradiation. It is found that the line-shaped filamentation, not void array tends to be formed in this glass. This is different from our previous experimental results in fused silica and BK7 glasses. A possible mechanism Ag$^+$ captures the free electrons generated by laser, is proposed to explain the observed phenomena.     

Possibilities for controlling attosecond x-ray pulse generation during molecular ionization by femtosecond laser radiation

We discuss the role of different factors (molecular sizes and configuration, orientation of the molecular axis with respect to the electric field of a laser pulse, the type of the molecular orbital, etc.), which characterize molecules and their state, in the formation of the nonlinear response of a molecule ionized by a high-power femtosecond laser pulse. In numerical experiments within the framework of a two-dimensional model for the H ₂ ⁺ molecular ion, we study possibilities for controlling the process of nonlinear frequency conversion of femtosecond optical radiation into X-ray radiation of attosecond duration by means of preliminary vibrational or electronic excitation of molecules. We demonstrate the possibilities of using the attosecond pulse generation as a diagnostic tool for probing vibration-rotational dynamics of molecules.     

ZrO2／SiO2多层膜中膜厚组合周期数及基底材料对残余应力的影响

ZrO₂／SiO₂多层膜由相同沉积条件下的电子束蒸发方法制备而成， 通过改变多层膜中高(ZrO₂)、低(SiO₂)折射率材料膜厚组合周期数的方法，研究了沉积 在熔石英和BK7玻璃 基底上多层膜中残余应力的变化. 用ZYGO光学干涉仪测量了基底镀膜前后曲率半径的变化， 并确定了薄膜中的残余应力. 结果发现，该多层膜中的残余应力为压应力，随着薄膜中膜厚 组合周期数的增加，压应力值逐渐减小. 而且在相同条件下，石英基底上所沉积多层膜中的 压应力值要小于BK7玻璃基底上所沉积多层膜中的压应力值. 用x射线衍射技术测量分析了膜 厚组合周期数不同的ZrO₂／SiO₂多层膜微结构，发现随着周期数增 加，多层膜的结晶程 度增强. 同时多层膜的微结构应变表现出了与所测应力不一致的变化趋势，这主要是由多层 膜中，膜层界面之间复杂的相互作用引起的. 关键词： 2／SiO₂多层膜')" href="#">ZrO₂／SiO₂多层膜 残余应力 膜厚组合周期数     

Nonlinear transmission in fibres at 308 nm

Intensity-induced variations in the energy transmittivity and temporal shape of pulses emerging from a 200-m-diameter core silica fibre have been investigated with a single-pulse XeCl laser. By coupling an XeCl laser pulse of 3mJ with a temporal width of 20 ns into a 30-m-long all-silica fibre, a total laser pulse of 1 mJ and 3 ns duration has been extracted at the fibre end. A pulse shortening larger than 80% has been observed. It is shown that the shape variations in the transmitted laser pulses are mainly due to stimulated Raman scattering processes. Substantial shape variations have been observed even at energy conversion efficiencies to the Stokes radiation of lower than 10%. The drop in energy transmittivity at higher fluences seems mainly due to two-photon absorption processes.     

Theoretical investigations of material modification using temporally shaped femtosecond laser pulses

We present a two-dimensional model, based on a drift–diffusion approach, developed to describe the dynamics of electronic excitation and lattice heating in several dielectric materials with different electron–phonon coupling properties (e.g. fused silica and sapphire) under the action of femtosecond near-infrared laser pulse trains with variable separation time between pulses. The modeling approach was aimed to describe the mechanisms that enable the spatial modulation of the structures induced by temporally modulated laser excitation and ablation of wide-band-gap dielectric materials. The possible geometric contours of the laser-induced craters on the target surfaces are discussed on the basis of the lattice-temperature profiles obtained by modeling. It was found that the observed difference in the crater shapes generated in fused silica and sapphire is conditioned by the difference in dynamics of electron excitation and recombination channels characteristic of these two materials. This effect can be used to convert a given temporal pulse modulation into spatial modulation, opening up new perspectives for material processing in order to obtain desired structure profiles. PACS 79.20.Ds; 42.62.-b     

热透镜技术中反射和透射两种探测方式的比较分析

热透镜技术按照测量方式的不同可以分为反射式和透射式两种。这两种方式的灵敏度强烈地依赖于样品的热物理性质,对于不同的样品,选择合适的测量构型尤为重要。采用高斯激光束作为加热光源,分别从理论和实验上比较分析了模式不匹配的反射式和透射式两种热透镜探测构型在测量以BK7玻璃和石英为基底的高反射光学薄膜弱吸收中的应用,结果表明,对以BK7玻璃为基底的样品,采用反射式探测构型具有较高的灵敏度,而对以石英为基底的样品而言,采用透射式探测构型则具有更高的灵敏度,为实际光学薄膜吸收损耗测试灵敏度的提高提供了理论和实验依据。     

Third-order nonlinear optical response in transparent solids using ultrashort laser pulses

The third-order optical nonlinearity, χ ⁽³⁾, is measured in transparent glasses (BK7 and fused silica) and crystals (BaF₂ and quartz) using 36-fs, 800-nm laser pulses and the optical Kerr gate (OKE) technique; values are found to lie in the range 1.3–1.7×10^-14 esu, in accordance with theoretical estimates. We probe the purely electronic response to the incident ultrashort laser pulse in fused silica and BK7 glass. In BaF₂ and quartz, apart from the electronic response we also observe contribution from the nuclear response to the incident ultrashort pulses. We observe oscillatory modulations that persist for ～400 fs. The response of the media (glasses and crystals) to ultrashort pulses is also measured using two-beam self-diffraction; the diffraction efficiency in the first-order grating is measured to be in the range of 0.06–0.13 %. Third harmonic generation due to self-phase matching in the transient grating geometry is measured as a function of temporal delay between the two incident ultrashort pulses, yielding the autocorrelation signal.     

Electron emission from insulator and semiconductor surfaces by multiphoton excitation below the optical damage threshold

The shape of acoustic pulses excited in crystalline silicon during absorption of Nd³⁺ YAG laser radiation was studied as a function of incident light intensity. It was revealed that the amplitude of the dilatation wave is saturated while the duration of the compression pulse is shortened. A theoretical model is suggested which explains the above experimental facts by a decrease in the time of Auger recombination for nonequilibrium carriers with an increase in their concentration for higher intensity of the optical excitation. The value of the Auger constant obtained from the experiment is 5×10^–31 cm⁶s^–1.     

Comparison of the influence of the fictive and the annealing temperature on the UV-transmission properties of synthetic fused silica

′ and NBOH). Samples with high OH content exhibit gradual recovery from the absorption band within several minutes after exposure to the KrF laser radiation. The formation of the KrF laser-induced 210 nm absorption band depends on the fictive temperature and on the OH content. Low fictive temperature, as a measure for the number of intrinsic defects, retards E^′ generation at the beginning of intense KrF excimer laser irradiation when the majority of defects are generated from precursor defects. However, for longer irradiation periods with pulse numbers of the order of 10⁵ pulses, a high OH content is the beneficial parameter. The accompanying atomic hydrogen is essential for the suppression of the 210 nm absorption band. This happens by transformation of the E^′ centers into Si-H defects. In contrast to a generally held view, annealing (decreasing of the fictive temperature) of fused silica does not always reduce UV induced defect generation. For example, annealing of the samples in an argon atmosphere causes a significantly higher 210 nm absorption increase during KrF excimer laser irradiation (240000 pulses) compared to nonannealed samples. Two spectroscopic methods to determine the OH content of fused silica were applied: Raman and infrared spectroscopy, which in this work lead to differing results. The energetics of the 210 nm absorption band generation and bleaching is summarized by a diagram explaining the interaction of the 248 nm laser radiation with fused silica. Received: 2 June 1997/Accepted: 13 June 1997     

Pulsed laser deposition of Er:BaTiO3 for planar waveguides

Laser radiation is used for the deposition of dielectric erbium doped BaTiO₃ thin films for photonic applications. Pulsed laser deposition with KrF excimer laser radiation (wavelength 248 nm, pulse duration 20 ns) is used to grow dense, transparent, amorphous, poly-crystalline and single crystalline erbium doped BaTiO₃ thin films. Visible emission due to up-conversion luminescence (wavelength 528 nm and 548 nm) under excitation with diode laser radiation at a wavelength of 970–985 nm is investigated as a function of the erbium concentration of 1–20 mol% and structural film properties. PACS 81.15.Fg; 42.55.Wd; 68.55; 78.55.Hx     

The effect of mid-infrared and far-infrared emission,generated at NH3 excitation by intense radiation of a TEA CO2 laser,on ammonia absorption

The effect of Mid-InfraRed (MIR) ( 12 m) and Far-InfraRed (FIR) ( 100 m) emission from excited ammonia on the absorption of intense radiation of a TEA CO₂ laser has been studied experimentally under collisional and collisionless excitation conditions with ammonia pressures from 0.5 to 0.03 Torr. The energy of MIR and FIR emission was studied as a function of NH₃ pressure and laser energy fluence. Particular emphasis was given to the kinetics of MIR and FIR emission generation at different NH₃ pressures and to the measurement of the time delay of re-emitted pulses relative to the exciting CO₂ laser pulse. It has been found that the re-emission in the MIR range is highly collisional in nature. The intensity of MIR emission drops sharply (asp ³) with decreasing NH₃ pressure and its delay time relative to the exciting laser pulse increases. At the same time, re-emission in the FIR range (in the case of resonant excitation of NH3 at the 9R (30) line of CO₂ laser) is observed during an exciting pulse up top < 0.03 Torr. When binding the rotational sub-levels of a molecule with transitions, FIR emission acts as rotational relaxation and thus leads to an increase in NH₃ IR absorption even at collisionless excitation.     

Tunable laser radiation,nonlinear absorption,and “anti-stokes” luminescence of color centers in α-Al2O3

This work investigates the generation of laser radiation by color centers of leucosapphire, nonlinear absorption, and the excitation mechanism of UV-luminescence. It is shown that UV-luminescence from color centers, excited in the 0.68 m absorption band, is caused by a two-staged excitation mechanism. The optical characteristics of the color centers are measured and calculation is made of the variation of the absorption coefficient with laser pulse's duration.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 10, pp. 41–46, October, 1987.     

Nd: Laser induced absorption in semiconductors and aqueous PrCl3 and NdCl3

The insertion of a multi-photon absorber within a laser cavity has practical importance in providing stabilised laser amplitude and variable pulse duration. We report the relative non-linear absorption coefficients of semiconductors Si, CdSe, CdTe, and GaAs at 1.064m using a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. The measurements on Si were carried out from 77 to 450° K, and the results confirm a stepwise process giving rise to induced absorption. The effects of the spatial and temporal distributions of the laser emission on the absolute non-linear coefficient values are briefly discussed. Preliminary observation of stepwise multi-photon absorption in aqueous PrCl₃ and NdCl₃ measured with a pulsed Nd:glass laser is also reported. The possibility of using a combination of inducible and saturable absorbers, placed within the laser cavity, as a means of providing laser intensities confined to a narrow range centred about a pre-set intensity, is raised.Alfred P. Solan Foundation Fellow.     

Experimental characterization of bi-directional terahertz emission from gold-coated nanogratings

The THz radiation emission of Au-coated nanogratings (fused silica substrate, 30?nm Au layer thickness, 500?nm grating constant) upon fs laser irradiation (785?nm, 150?fs, 1?kHz,???1?mJ/pulse) is observed in both directions along the laser beam axis (forward and backward) and for both, illumination of the Au/air or the Au/silica interface. THz radiation along the laser beam propagation is emitted in a narrow solid angle of about 15°?fwhm independent on the laser pulse fluence, the angle of incidence and the nanograting profile. The bar width and groove depth of the nanograting as well as the angle of laser beam incidence strongly affect the THz radiation yield. The energy of single THz light pulses is measured absolutely (2?fJ in the 0.3?C0.38?THz range) using a highly sensitive and fast superconducting transition edge sensor. The bi-directional emission of THz radiation is in agreement with the model assumption of surface plasmon polaritons propagating simultaneously on both Au layer interfaces (Au/air and Au/silica).     

Direct joining of glass substrates by 1 kHz femtosecond laser pulses

When a femtosecond laser pulse is focused at the interface of two transparent substrates, localised melting and quenching of the two substrates occur around the focal volume, bridging them due to nonlinear absorption. The substrates can then be joined by resolidification of the materials. We investigate the optimum irradiation conditions needed to join borosilicate glass substrates and fused silica substrates using a 1 kHz 800 nm Ti:sapphire amplifier. We characterised the joint strength and the transmittance through joint volumes as a function of laser energy and translation velocity. We found that a joining strength as large as 14.9 MPa could be obtained in both fused silica and borosilicate glass. Annealing the joint samples led to an increase in the joint strength. PACS 42.65.Jx; 42.70.Ce; 81.20.Vj