Study of filamentary damage in synthesized silica induced by chirped femtosecond laser pulses

Different filamentary tracks in synthesized silica were induced by varying both the pulse duration and the incident energy of chirped laser pulses under slow-focusing conditions. Short-duration pulses induced filamentary refractive-index change, whereas longer pulses produced scattering damage in filamentary tracks. We report a systematic study on the morphology and birefringence of filamentary refractive-index change and scattering damage. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America.