Optical breakdown for silica and silicon with double femtosecond laser pulses

The optical breakdown thresholds (OBTs) of typical dielectric and semiconductor materials are measured using double 40-fs laser pulses. By measuring the OBTs with different laser energy and different time delays between the two pulses, we found that the total energy of breakdown decrease for silica and increase for silicon with the increase of the first pulse energy. (C) 2005 Optical Society of America.