Abstract
Ultrashort laser pulses tightly focused inside a transparent material present an example of laser interaction with matter where all the laser-affected material remains inside the bulk, thus the mass is conserved. In this paper, we present the case where the high intensity of a laser pulse is above the threshold for optical breakdown, and the material is ionised in the focal area. We consider in detail a special case where a micro-explosion is formed at the boundary of a silicon surface buried under a 10-micron-thick oxidised layer, providing the opportunity to affect the silicon crystal by a strong shock wave and creating new material phases from the plasma state. We summarise the main conclusions on ultrafast laser-induced material modifications in confined geometry and discuss the prospects of confined micro-explosion for forming new silicon phases.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 33-43 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Applied Physics A: Materials Science and Processing |
| Volume | 114 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2014 |
Funding
This research was supported under Australian Research Council’s Discovery Project funding scheme (project number DP120102980). Partial support to this work by Air Force Office of Scientific Research, USA (FA9550-12-1-0482) is gratefully acknowledged. We also acknowledge the ANFF ACT Node for the access to their FIB system.