Ultrafast double-pulse ablation of fused silica

Ultrafast pump-probe experiments were used to study high-intensity ultrafast pulse-ablation dynamics in fused silica. Two laser pulses with varied time delay and pulse energy were used to irradiate fused silica samples and observe the transient reflectivity and transmissivity of the probe pulse. It was seen that the probe reflectivity initially increased due to the formation of free-electron plasma and then dropped to a low value within a period of about 10 ps caused by a rapid structural change at the surface. The time-resolved measurements of reflectivity and transmissivity were also related to atomic force microscopy measurements of the depth of the laser-ablated hole. It was seen that the depth peaked at zero delay between the pulses and decreased within a period of about I ps as the temporal separation between the pulses was increased caused by the screening by the plasma produced by the first pulse. When the temporal separation is about 100 ps or longer, evidence for melting and resolidification during double-pulse ablation was also observed in the form of ridges at the circumference of the ablated holes. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.