Femtosecond optical breakdown in silicon

TL;DR

This paper studies ultrafast optical breakdown in silicon caused by intense femtosecond laser pulses, revealing threshold behaviors, spectral effects, and lattice instability leading to melting.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the threshold energy fluence, spectral broadening, and lattice destabilization during femtosecond laser-induced breakdown in silicon.

Findings

Threshold fluence exceeds 1 J/cm² for breakdown.

Spectral broadening occurs during ultrafast breakdown.

High plasma density causes lattice softening and melting.

Abstract

We investigate photoinization, energy deposition, plasma formation and the ultrafast optical breakdown in crystalline silicon irradiated by intense near-infrared laser pulses with pulse duration $\tau \le $ 100 fs. The occurrence of high-intensity breakdown was established by the sudden increase of the absorbed laser energy inside the bulk, which corresponds to threshold energy fluence $\Phi_{th} > $ 1 J/cm$^2$. The optical breakdown is accompanied by severe spectral broadening of the transmitted pulse. For the studied irradiation conditions, we find that the threshold fluence increases linearly with the increase of the pulse duration, while the corresponding laser intensity threshold decreases. The effect of the high plasma density on the stability of diamond lattice is also examined. For near threshold fluences, when about 5 \% of valence electrons are promoted into the conduction band, the Si-Si bonds are softened and large Fermi degeneracy pressure arises (with pressure up to 100 kbar). The mechanical instability of the diamond lattice suggests that the large number of electron-hole pairs leads directly to ultrafast melting of the crystal structure.