Three-dimensional footprint of optical breakdown in transparent dielectrics induced by femtosecond pulsed lasers and the effect of laser energy absorption

In this paper optical breakdown process in dielectrics induced by femtosecond pulsed lasers was calculated numerically and 3-dimensional footprint of the breakdown region was simulated. Rate equation was used to calculate the temporal and spatial evolution of free electron density. In these simulations the role of tunneling ionization in free electron generation has been considered. Also absorbed energy from the pulse via multiphoton and inverse bremsstrahlung absorption was calculated numerically. The results show that the absorption of the propagating laser through the initially transparent dielectric is important and its ignorance may results in significant error in estimating the breakdown geometry, and volume. According to the simulation results in compare with our previous calculations, smaller and asymmetrical breakdown footprint is obtained if the absorption is considered in the calculations.

[1]  Jon P. Longtin,et al.  Plasma Absorption of Femtosecond Laser Pulses in Dielectrics , 2002 .

[2]  G. Mourou,et al.  Laser ablation and micromachining with ultrashort laser pulses , 1997 .

[3]  Ward Small,et al.  Plasma mediated ablation of biological tissues with nanosecond-to-femtosecond laser pulses: relative role of linear and nonlinear absorption , 1996 .

[4]  Brent C. Stuart,et al.  Optical ablation by high-power short-pulse lasers , 1996 .

[5]  A. Vogel,et al.  Laser-induced plasma formation in water at nanosecond to femtosecond time scales: Calculation of thresholds, absorption coefficients, and energy density , 1999 .

[6]  M. Langlois,et al.  Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers , 2005 .

[7]  T. Baumert,et al.  Plasma dynamics of water breakdown at a water surface induced by femtosecond laser pulses , 2006 .

[8]  Mohammad Hossein Mahdieh,et al.  Optical breakdown in dielectrics induced by high intensity femtosecond laser pulse and simulation of breakdown footprint , 2010, International Symposium on High Power Laser Systems and Applications.

[9]  J. Longtin,et al.  Modeling optical breakdown in dielectrics during ultrafast laser processing. , 2001, Applied optics.

[10]  D. Hammer,et al.  A first-order model for computation of laser-induced breakdown thresholds in ocular and aqueous media. II. Comparison to experiment , 1995 .

[11]  D. Linde,et al.  Breakdown Threshold and Plasma Formation in Femtosecond Laser-Solid Interaction , 1994, High Field Interactions and Short Wavelength Generation.

[12]  Guillaume Petite,et al.  Comment on ``Ultrafast Electron Dynamics in Femtosecond Optical Breakdown of Dielectrics'' , 1999 .

[13]  E. Mazur,et al.  Dynamics of femtosecond laser-induced breakdown in water from femtoseconds to microseconds. , 2002, Optics express.

[14]  Medizinisches Laserzentrum Lu ̈ beck,et al.  Shock wave emission and cavitation bubble generation by picosecond and nanosecond optical breakdown in water , 1996 .

[15]  Tsuneo Mitsuyu,et al.  Photowritten optical waveguides in various glasses with ultrashort pulse laser , 1997 .

[16]  Yaochun Shen.  Principles of nonlinear optics , 1984 .

[17]  Eric Mazur,et al.  Laser-induced breakdown and damage in bulk transparent materials induced by tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses , 2001 .

[18]  L. Keldysh,et al.  IONIZATION IN THE FIELD OF A STRONG ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE , 1964 .

[19]  P. Kennedy.  A first-order model for computation of laser-induced breakdown thresholds in ocular and aqueous media. I. Theory , 1995 .

[20]  G. Mourou,et al.  Corneal refractive surgery with femtosecond lasers , 1999 .

[21]  Eric Mazur,et al.  Photodisruption in biological tissues and single cells using femtosecond laser pulses , 2001, CLEO 2001.

[22]  A. Welch,et al.  Shielding properties of laser-induced breakdown in water for pulse durations from 5 ns to 125 fs. , 1997, Applied optics.

[23]  A. Gaeta,et al.  Infrared photosensitivity in silica glasses exposed to femtosecond laser pulses. , 1999, Optics letters.

[24]  Perry,et al.  Nanosecond-to-femtosecond laser-induced breakdown in dielectrics. , 1996, Physical review. B, Condensed matter.

[25]  Brent C. Stuart,et al.  Ultrashort-pulse laser machining of dielectric materials , 1999 .

[26]  Xianfan Xu,et al.  Femtosecond laser absorption in fused silica: Numerical and experimental investigation , 2005 .

[27]  A. Couairon,et al.  Femtosecond laser-induced damage and filamentary propagation in fused silica. , 2002, Physical review letters.

[28]  K König,et al.  Nanodissection of human chromosomes with near-infrared femtosecond laser pulses. , 2001, Optics letters.

[29]  G. Gibson,et al.  ULTRAFAST ELECTRON DYNAMICS IN FEMTOSECOND OPTICAL BREAKDOWN OF DIELECTRICS , 1999 .

[30]  J Mellerio,et al.  Study of the temporal and spatial dynamics of plasmas induced in liquids by nanosecond Nd:YAG laser pulses. 1: Analysis of the plasma starting times. , 1988, Applied optics.

[31]  J. P. Callan,et al.  Three-dimensional optical storage inside transparent materials. , 1996, Optics letters.

[32]  J. Sun,et al.  Breakdown threshold and localized electron density in water induced by ultrashort laser pulses , 2002 .

[33]  M. Mahdieh,et al.  3-Dimensional simulation and footprint of optical breakdown in dielectrics induced by femtosecond laser pulse , 2012 .

[34]  Eric Mazur,et al.  Ablation of cytoskeletal filaments and mitochondria in live cells using a femtosecond laser nanoscissor. , 2005, Mechanics & chemistry of biosystems : MCB.

[35]  A. Vogel,et al.  Influence of pulse duration on mechanical effects after laser-induced breakdown in water , 1998 .

[36]  G. Mourou,et al.  Femtosecond Optical Breakdown in Dielectrics , 1998 .