Femtosecond laser-induced stress-free ultra-densification inside porous glass

Unusually high densification <= 26% was obtained without lateral residual stresses within the laser beam waist inside porous glass during its multi-shot femtosecond laser irradiation, which may induce in the glass the related high refractive index change similar to 0.1. Corresponding laser irradiation regimes, resulting in such ultra-densification, decompaction and voids inside the glass, were revealed as a function of laser pulse energy and scanning rate, and were discussed in terms of thermal and hydrodynamic processes in the silica network.