Comparison of damage and ablation dynamics of multilayer dielectric films initiated by few-cycle pulses versus longer femtosecond pulses

Abstract

The importance of high intensity few- to single-cycle laser pulses for applications such as intense isolated attosecond pulse generation is constantly growing, and with the breakdown of the monochromatic approximation in field ionization models, the few-cycle pulse (FCP) interaction with solids near the damage threshold has ushered a new paradigm of nonperturbative light–matter interaction. In this Letter, we systematically study and contrast how femtosecond laser-induced damage and ablation behaviors of S i O 2 / H f O 2 -based reflective multilayer dielectric thin film systems vary between FCP and 110 fs pulses. With time-resolved surface microscopy and ex situ analysis, we show that there are distinct differences in the interaction depending on the pulse duration, specifically in the “blister” morphology formation at lower fluences (damage) as well as in the dynamics of debris formation at higher fluences (ablation).

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
May 01, 2020
Source ID
10.1364/ol.389650

Entities

People

  • Aaron Davenport
  • Abdallah Alshafey
  • Carmen S. Menoni
  • Emmett Randel
  • Enam Chowdhury
  • Jacob Krebs
  • Michael Tripepi
  • Noah Talisa

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Office of Naval Research
  • Office of Science

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Nanofabrication and Microfabrication.
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Directed Energy - Pulsed-Laser Deposition