Scaling of femtosecond laser induced breakdown threshold in TixSil-xO2 composite films

Author

Cravetchi, I. ; Nguyen, D. ; Rudolph, W. ; Jupe, M. ; Lappschies, M. ; Starke, K. ; Ristau, D.

Author_Institution

Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque

fYear

2007

fDate

17-22 June 2007

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

1

Abstract

In the present work we investigate scaling laws for subpicosecond laser induced breakdown in composite Ti_xSi_1-xO₂ films. Films with an optical thickness of 6lambda/4 at lambda= 800 nm and material band gaps varying from 3.5 eV (x ~ 0.995) to 5.4 eV (x ~ 0.05) were investigated. Pulses from a Ti:sapphire oscillator-amplifier system whose durations were tuned from 28 fs to 300 fs were used for the single-shot breakdown measurements. The occurrence of damage was observed as a distinct change of probe light scattered off the excited spot using a microscope. The observed scaling with respect to pulse duration and band gap is explained by a theoretical model based on a modified Keldysh theory.

Keywords

composite materials; energy gap; high-speed optical techniques; laser beam effects; laser tuning; optical films; optical materials; solid lasers; titanium compounds; Al₂O₃:Ti; Keldysh theory; Ti:sapphire oscillator-amplifier system; TiSiO₂; band gap; composite films; femtosecond laser induced breakdown; laser threshold; light scattering; optical thickness; time 28 fs to 300 fs; wavelength 800 nm; Electric breakdown; Optical films; Optical materials; Optical pulses; Optical scattering; Photonic band gap; Probes; Pulse measurements; Semiconductor films; Ultrafast optics;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2007 and the International Quantum Electronics Conference. CLEOE-IQEC 2007. European Conference on

Conference_Location

Munich

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-0931-0

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-0931-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEOE-IQEC.2007.4386682

Filename

4386682