Chris B. Schaffer

Tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses can be nonlinearly absorbed inside transparent materials, creating a highly excited electron – ion plasma. These conditions exist only in a small volume at the laser focus. This tight confinement and extreme conditions lead to an explosive expansion — a microexplosion. In solid materials, a microexplosion can result in permanent structural changes. We find that the damage produced by femtosecond pulses in this way is surprisingly small, with only a 200-nm diameter. Material left at the center of the microexplosion is either amorphous and less dense or... Read more about Ultrafast laser induced microexplosions: explosive dynamics and sub-micrometer structures