Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides have emerged as promising materials for optoelectronic and nanophotonic devices. However, the low photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield (QY) hinders their various potential applications. Here we engineer and enhance the PL intensity of monolayer WS2 by femtosecond laser irradiation. More than two orders of magnitude enhancement of PL intensity as compared to the as-prepared sample is determined. Furthermore, the engineering time is shortened by three orders of magnitude as compared to the improvement of PL intensity by continuous-wave laser irradiation. Based on the evolution of PL spectra, we attribute the giant PL enhancement to the conversion from trion emission to exciton, as well as the improvement of the QY when exciton and trion are localized to the new-formed defects. We have created microstructures on the monolayer WS2 based on the enhancement of PL intensity, where the engineered structures can be stably stored for more than three years. This flexible approach with the feature of excellent long-term storage stability is promising for applications in information storage, display technology, and optoelectronic devices.
We predict ultrafast modulation of the pure molten metal surface stress fields under the irradiation of the single femtosecond laser pulse through the two-temperature model molecular-dynamics simulations. High-resolution and precision calculations are used to resolve the ultrafast laser-induced anisotropic relaxations of the pressure components on the time-scale comparable to the intrinsic liquid density relaxation time. The magnitudes of the dynamic surface tensions are found being modulated sharply within picoseconds after the irradiation, due to the development of the nanometer scale non-hy…
Transient surface electric fields induced by femtosecond laser irradiation of an aluminum film were investigated directly by ultrashort electron pulses. At pump intensities of 2.9~7.1 * 10^10 W/cm2, the transient electric fields last at least one nanosecond with a maximum field strength of 3.2~5.3 * 10^4 V/m at 120 micro m above the aluminum surface. The transient electric fields and the associated evolution of photoelectrons were explained by a "three-layer" model. The potential influence of such fields on reflection ultrafast electron diffraction and time-resolved angle-resolved photoemissio…
We investigate the periodic structure formation upon intense femtosecond pulsed irradiation of chrome steel (100Cr6) for linearly polarised laser beams. The underlying physical mechanism of the laser induced periodic structures is explored, their spatial frequency is calculated and theoretical results are compared with experimental observations. The proposed theoretical model comprises estimations of electron excitation, heat transfer, relaxation processes, and hydrodynamics-related mass transport. Simulations describe the sequential formation of sub-wavelength ripples and supra-wavelength gro…
We present a theoretical investigation of the yet unexplored dynamics of the produced excited carriers upon irradiation of hexagonal Silicon Carbide (6H-SiC) with femtosecond laser pulses. To describe the ultrafast behaviour of laser induced out-of-equilibrium carriers, a real time simulation based on Density Functional Theory (DFT) methodology is used to compute both the hot carrier dynamics and transient change of the optical properties. A Two-Temperature model (TTM) is also employed to derive the relaxation processes for laser pulses of wavelength 401 nm, duration 50 fs at normal incidence …
The study of hexagonal silicon polytypes attracts special attention due to their unique physical properties compared to the traditional cubic phase of Si. Thus, for some hexagonal phases, a significant improvement in the emission properties has been demonstrated. In this work, the luminescent properties of SiO2/Si structures irradiated with Kr+ ions at different doses and annealed at 800 °C have been systematically investigated. For such structures, a photoluminescence line at ~ 1240 nm is observed and associated with the formation of hexagonal 9R-Si phase inclusions. It is found that the vari…
A theoretical investigation of the ultrafast processes and dynamics of the excited carriers upon irradiation of GaAs with femtosecond (fs) pulsed lasers is performed in conditions that induce material damage and eventually surface modification of the heated solid. A parametric study is followed to correlate the produced transient carrier density with the damage threshold for various pulse duration values τp (it increases as ~ at relatively small values of τp while it drops for pulse durations of the order of some picoseconds) based on the investigation of the fundamental multiscale physical pr…
Laser excitation has emerged as a means to expose hidden states of matter and promote phase transitions on demand. Such laser induced transformations are often rendered possible owing to the delivery of spatially and/or temporally manipulated light, carrying energy quanta well above the thermal background. Here, we report time-resolved broadband femtosecond (fs) transient absorption measurements on thin flakes of Weyl semimetal candidate $T_d$-MoTe$_2$ subjected to various levels and schemes of fs-photoexcitation. Our results reveal that impulsive fs-laser irradiation alters the interlayer beh…
The effect of ultrashort laser-induced morphological changes upon irradiation of silicon with double pulse sequences is investigated under conditions that lead to mass removal. The temporal delay between twelve double and equal-energy pulses (Ep=0.24J/cm2 each, with pulse duration tp=430fs, 800nm laser wavelength) was varied between 0 and 14ps and a decrease of the damaged area, crater depth size and periodicity of the induced subwavelength ripples (by 3-4%) was observed with increasing pulse delay. The proposed underlying mechanism is based on the combination of carrier excitation and energy …
We study the response of graphene to high-intensity 10^11-10^12 Wcm^-2, 50-femtosecond laser pulse excitation. We establish that graphene has a fairly high (~3\times10^12Wcm^-2) single-shot damage threshold. Above this threshold, a single laser pulse cleanly ablates graphene, leaving microscopically defined edges. Below this threshold, we observe laser-induced defect formation that leads to degradation of the lattice over multiple exposures. We identify the lattice modification processes through in-situ Raman microscopy. The effective lifetime of CVD graphene under femtosecond near-IR irradiat…
We review the results of our research on damage mechanisms in materials irradiated with femtosecond free-electron-laser (FEL) pulses. They were obtained using our hybrid approach, XTANT (X-ray-induced Thermal And Nonthermal Transitions). Various damage mechanisms are discussed with respect to the pulse fluence and material properties on examples of diamond, amorphous carbon, C60 crystal, and silicon. We indicate conditions: producing thermal melting of targets as a result of electron-ion energy exchange; nonthermal phase transitions due to modification of the interatomic potential; Coulomb exp…
The significance of the magnitude of Prandtl number of a fluid in the propagation direction of induced convection rolls is elucidated. Specifically, we report on the physical mechanism to account for the formation and orientation of previously unexplored supra-wavelength periodic surface structures in dielectrics, following melting and subsequent capillary effects induced upon irradiation with ultrashort laser pulses. Counterintuitively, it is found that such structures exhibit periodicities, which are markedly, even multiple times, higher than the laser excitation wavelength. It turns out tha…
Effect of the femtosecond and nanosecond UV laser irradiation (below the ablation threshold) of graphite-like hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has been studied. Experiments were carried out with the compacted powder under high vacuum at room temperature using excimer KrF laser (248 nm). In the nanosecond operation mode, the laser-induced fluorescence spectra are found strongly modified depending on the integrated doze, which is attributed to a progressive enrichment of the surface layer by elemental boron. A slow sample recovery after the laser irradiation has been observed. On the other hand, in…
Photoluminescence (PL) from femtosecond laser modified regions inside cubic-boron nitride (c-BN) was measured under UV and visible light excitation. Bright PL at the red spectral range was observed, with a typical excited state lifetime of $\sim 4$~ns. Sharp emission lines are consistent with PL of intrinsic vibronic defects linked to the nitrogen vacancy formation (via Frenkel pair) observed earlier in high energy electron irradiated and ion-implanted c-BN. These, formerly known as the radiation centers, RC1, RC2, and RC3 have been identified at the locus of the voids formed by single fs-lase…
Photoluminescence of Femtosecond Laser-irradiated Silicon Carbide
RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau（凯泽斯劳滕-兰道莱布尼茨技术大学）；Universität des Saarlandes（萨尔兰州立大学）；Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST)（卢森堡科学与技术研究所）；University of Luxembourg（卢森堡大学）；Institut für Oberflächen- und Schichttechnik GmbH（表面与薄膜技术研究所有限公司）
We used high order harmonics of a femtosecond titanium-doped sapphire system (pulse duration 25 fs) to realise Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectroscopy (UPS) measurements on diamond. The UPS spectra were measured for harmonics in the range 13 to 27. We also made ab initio calculations of the electronic lifetime of conduction electrons in the energy range produced in the UPS experiment. Such calculations show that the lifetime suddenly diminishes when the conduction electron energy reaches the plasmon energy, whereas the UPS spectra show evidence in this range of a strong relaxation mechanism wit…
In order to gain some insight on the electronic relaxation mechanisms occuring in diamond under high intensity laser excitation and/or VUV excitation, we studied experimentally the pulsed conductivity induced by femtosecond VUV pulses, as well as the energy spectra of the photoelectrons released by the same irradiation. The source of irradiation consists in highly coherent VUV pulses obtained through high order harmonic generation of a high intensity femtosecond pulse at a 1.55 eV photon energy (titanium-doped sapphire laser). Harmonics H9 to H17 have been used for photoconductivity (PC) and h…
Defect engineering is applied to hybrid (CH$_3$NH$_3$)PbI$_3$ organic-inorganic perovskites. These materials have become one of the most promising low-cost alternatives to traditional semiconductors in the field of photovoltaics and light emitting devices. We use here Helium ion irradiation at low energy as a tool for the controlled introduction of point defects in both single crystals and polycrystalline thin films. The irradiation defects modify the opto-electronic properties as probed using photoluminescence spectroscopy from 10K to room-temperature. 2 Contrary to usual semiconductors, we o…
Ultrafast laser irradiation of solids leads to a thermodynamic nonequilibrium within and between the electron and phonon subsystems of the material. Due to electron-electron and phonon-phonon collisions, both subsystems relax into respective new thermodynamic equilibria within a characteristic thermalization time, which is different for each one of them. Moreover, they equilibrate their temperatures by electron phonon coupling. The relaxation of the electronic nonequilibrium and its effect on the electron phonon coupling was subject to a number of studies and it is comparably well understood, …
The mechanisms of ripple formation on silicon surface by femtosecond laser pulses are investigated. We demonstrate the transient evolution of the density of the excited free-carriers. As a result, the experimental conditions required for the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons are revealed. The periods of the resulting structures are then investigated as a function of laser parameters, such as the angle of incidence, laser fluence, and polarization. The obtained dependencies provide a way of better control over the properties of the periodic structures induced by femtosecond laser on the …
We present a theoretical investigation of the dynamics of the dielectric constant of noble metals following heating with ultrashort pulsed laser beams and the influence of the temporal variation of the associated optical properties in the thermomechanical response of the material. The effect of the electron relaxation time on the optical properties based on the use of a critical point model is thoroughly explored for various pulse duration values (i.e. from 110fs to 8ps). The proposed theoretical framework correlates the dynamical change of optical parameters, relaxation processes and induced …
We present a theoretical study of the ultrafast electron dynamics in transition metals using ultrashort pulsed laser beams. The significant influence of the contribution of the dynamics of produced nonthermal electrons to electron thermalisation and electron-phonon interaction is thoroughly investigated within a range of values of the pulse duration (i.e. from 10fs to 2.3ps). The theoretical model elaborates firstly on possible transient changes of optical parameters during irradiation due to the presence of the non-equilibrium electrons and the modification of the electron distribution functi…
Low loss, optical channel waveguides have been successfully produced by high repetition rate, femtosecond laser inscription in a Li-Zn fluoroborate glass (64.9B2O3 + 25Li2O + 10ZnF2 + 0.1Er2O3). High quality waveguides were produced at 500 kHz, 1 MHz and 2 MHz laser repetition rates, showing a refractive index contrast in the range of 3-6 x 10-3 depending on various fluences. Dependence of experimental parameters such as average laser power, pulse repetition rate and writing speed on the properties of fabricated waveguides has been discussed. The comparison of optical and compositional charact…
A variety of paper were drawn by lead pencil with the grade between 4H through 10B. Raman spectroscopy verified both G and D peaks on all the drawing on PC print paper, PC photo paper, kent paper and paper for silver halide print. After irradiation of scanning femtosecond laser, silver halide paper drawn with 10B lead pencil remained surface flatness compared to the other papers. Raman spectroscopy on silver print paper showed a large G peak with less intensity of D peak. After irradiation of scanning femtosecond laser on silver halide paper drawn by 10B lead pencil, Raman spectroscopy showed …
The effect of femtosecond laser irradiation on bulk and single-layer MoS2 on silicon oxide is studied. Optical, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) and Raman microscopies were used to quantify the damage. The intensity of A1g and E2g1 vibrational modes was recorded as a function of the number of irradiation pulses. The observed behavior was attributed to laser-induced bond breaking and subsequent atoms removal due to electronic excitations. The single-pulse optical damage threshold was determined for the monolayer and bulk under 800nm and 1030nm pulsed laser irradiation and the…
We present a theoretical investigation of the yet unexplored ultrafast processes and dynamics of the produced excited carriers upon irradiation of Silicon with femtosecond pulsed lasers in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectral region. The evolution of the carrier density and thermal response of the electron-hole and lattice subsystems are analysed for various wavelengths λL in the range between 2.2 μm and 3.3 μm where the influence of two and three-photon absorption mechanisms is explored. The role of induced Kerr effect is highlighted and it manifests a more pronounced influence at smaller wavel…
Rippled area formed by surface plasmon polaritons upon femtosecond laser double-pulse irradiation of silicon: the role of carrier generation and relaxation processes
As it is known from visible light experiments, silicon under femtosecond pulse irradiation can undergo the so-called 'nonthermal melting' if the density of electrons excited from the valence to the conduction band overcomes a certain critical value. Such ultrafast transition is induced by strong changes in the atomic potential energy surface, which trigger atomic relocation. However, heating of a material due to the electron-phonon coupling can also lead to a phase transition, called 'thermal melting'. This thermal melting can occur even if the excited-electron density is much too low to induc…
A femtosecond laser-irradiated crystallizing technique is tried to convert amorphous Sb2Te3 film into crystalline film. Sensitive coherent phonon spectroscopy (CPS) is used to monitor the crystallization of amorphous Sb2Te3 film at the original irradiation site. The CPS reveals that the vibration strength of two phonon modes that correspond to the characteristic phonon modes of crystalline Sb2Te3, enhances with increasing laser irradiation fluence (LIF), showing the rise of the degree of crystallization with LIF and that femtosecond laser irradiation is a good post-treatment technique. Time-re…
We studied the parameters to optimize the production of negatively-charged nitrogen-vacancy color centers (NV-) in type~1b single crystal diamond using proton irradiation followed by thermal annealing under vacuum. Several samples were treated under different irradiation and annealing conditions and characterized by slow positron beam Doppler-broadening and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopies. At high proton fluences another complex vacancy defect appears limiting the formation of NV-. Concentrations as high as 2.3 x 10^18 cm^-3 of NV- have been estimated from PL measurements. Furthermore, w…
Femtosecond pulsed lasers have been widely used over the past decades due to their capability to fabricate precise patterns at the micro- and nano- lengths scales. A key issue for efficient material processing is the determination of the laser parameters used in the experimental set ups. Despite a systematic investigation that has been performed to highlight the impact of every parameter independently, little attention has been drawn on the role of the substrate material on which the irradiated solid is placed. In this work, the influence of the substrate is emphasised for films of various thi…
The effects of ultra-short laser pulses on reactive Ti/Al nano-layered thin film were investigated. The thin film composed of alternated titanium and aluminium nano-layers, was deposited by ion-sputtering. Single pulse irradiation was conducted in the air with focused and linearly polarized femtosecond laser beam - of 1026 nm wavelength and pulse duration of 170 fs. Laser induced composition and morphological changes, using different microscopy techniques and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, were investigated. Following results were obtained: (i) one step partial/selective ablation of upp…
We generate silicon vacancy related defects in high-quality epitaxial silicon carbide layers by means of electron irradiation. By controlling the irradiation fluence, the defect concentration is varied over several orders of magnitude. We establish the excitation profile for optical pumping of these defects and evaluate the optimum excitation wavelength of 770 nm. We also measure the photoluminescence dynamics at room temperature and find a monoexponential decay with a characteristic lifetime of 6.1 ns. The integrated photoluminescence intensity depends linear on the excitation power density u…
Visible luminescence is observed from the composite of SiO2 with embedded silicon nanocrystallites produced by femtosecond laser irradiation of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) film in air. The photoluminescence originates from the defect states at the interface between silicon crystallites and SiO2 matrix. The method could be used for fabrication of luminescent layers to increase energy conversion of a-Si:H solar cells.
We report an experimental investigation on the irradiation of copper thin films with high repetition rate femtosecond laser pulses (1040 nm, 50 MHz), in ambient air and liquid water. We observe a novel, striking phenomenon of chromatic copper oxides (cupric oxide and cuprous oxide) annuli generation. The characteristic features of the chromatic copper oxide annuli are studied by exploiting micro-Raman Spectroscopy, Optical and Scanning Electron Microscopies. In the case of irradiation in water, the seldom investigated effects of the immersion time, after irradiation with a fixed number of puls…
We consider the case of surface irradiation by a small number of femtosecond laser shots leading to the formation of surface ripples. To explain this effect, we propose a numerical model that accounts for the following processes: (i) interference of the laser irradiation with an electromagnetic surface wave propagating on a silicon sample; (ii) free carrier formation and laser energy absorption; (iii) energy relaxation and electron-phonon coupling. We perform numerical calculations taking into account the interference of a surface wave with laser; and present the obtained simulation results in…
Femtosecond micromachining offers a contact-free and mask-less technique for material patterning. With ultrafast laser irradiation, permanent modifications to the properties of single layer graphene through material ablation or defect introduction can be induced. Multiple femtosecond pulse interactions with a single layer graphene are studied and a low laser ablation threshold ~9.2 mJ/cm2 is reported for a 15 second illumination time. Clean ablated structures are generated in such a multi pulse irradiation configuration at low pulse energies as an attractive alternative to ablation with single…
Atomistic Origin of Photoluminescence Quenching in Colloidal MoS2 and WS2 Nanoplatelets
Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen（蒂宾根大学）；NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Tübingen（蒂宾根大学国家自然和医学研究所）；Leibniz University of Hannover（汉诺威莱布尼茨大学）；University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）；University of Tübingen, Institute of Applied Physics（蒂宾根大学应用物理研究所）
Understanding the mechanisms and controlling the possibilities of surface nanostructuring is of crucial interest from fundamental and practical perspectives. Here we report a direct experimental observation of laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) formed near a predesigned gold step edge following single-pulse femtosecond laser irradiation. A hybrid atomistic-continuum model fully supports experimental observations. We identify two key components of single-pulse LIPSS formation: excitation of surface plasmon polaritons and material reorganization. Our results lay the foundation tow…
Hybrid Femtosecond Laser and Ion-Implantation Processing for Controlled, Deep, High-Efficiency Ablation in Fused Silica
Instituto de Optica Daza de Valdes (IO), CSIC（西班牙科学研究中心光学研究所）；HiLASE Centre, FZU - Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences（捷克科学院物理研究所 HiLASE 中心）；Universidad Autónoma de Madrid（马德里自治大学）；Centro de Microanálisis de Materiales (CMAM), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid（马德里自治大学材料微分析中心）；FZU - Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences（捷克科学院物理研究所）
We report on the morphological effects induced by the inhomogeneous absorption of cylindrically polarized femtosecond laser irradiation of silver (Ag) in sub-ablation conditions. A theoretical prediction of the role of surface plasmon excitation in the production of self-formed periodic ripples structures is evaluated. Furthermore, a combined hydrodynamical and thermoelastic model is presented to account for the influence of temperature-related lattice movements in laser beam conditions that are sufficient to produce material melting. The ability to control the size of the morphological change…
An ab initio molecular dynamics study of femtosecond laser processing of germanium is presented in this paper. The method based on the finite temperature density functional theory is adopted to probe the structural change, thermal motion of the atoms, dynamic property of the velocity autocorrelation, and the vibrational density of states. Starting from a cubic system at room temperature (300 K) containing 64 germanium atoms with an ordered arrangement of 1.132 nm in each dimension, the femtosecond laser processing is simulated by imposing the Nose Hoover thermostat to the electronic subsystem …
Laser induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) are formed by multiple irradiation of femtosecond laser on a silicon target. In this paper, we focus and discuss the surface plasmon polariton mechanism by an analysis of transient phase-matching conditions in Si on the basis of a single pulse experiment and numerical simulations. Two regimes of ripple formation mechanisms at low number of shots are identified and detailed. Correlation of numerical and experimental results is good.
We have examined the effect of pump-probe photon energy on the amplitude of coherent optical phonons in a prototypical phase change material using a femtosecond time-resolved transmission technique. The photon energy was varied between 0.8 and 1.0 eV (corresponding to the wavelength of 1550 and 1200 nm), a range over which there is significant optical contrast between the crystalline and amorphous phases of Ge$_{2}$Sb$_{2}$Te$_{5}$ (GST225). It was found that in crystalline GST225 the coherent phonon amplitude monotonically increases as the photon energy increases, indicating that the phonon a…
Irradiation of solids with ultrashort pulses and laser processing in the mid-Infrared (mid-IR) spectral region is a yet predominantly unexplored field with a large potential for a wide range of applications. In this work, laser driven physical phenomena associated with processes following irradiation of fused silica (SiO2) with ultrashort laser pulses in the mid-IR region are investigated in detail. A multiscale modelling approach is performed that correlates conditions for formation of perpendicular or parallel to the laser polarisation low spatial frequency periodic surface structures for lo…
We report on a new, single-step and scalable method to fabricate highly ordered, multi-directional and complex surface structures that mimic the unique morphological features of certain species found in nature. Biomimetic surface structuring was realized by exploiting the unique and versatile angular profile and the electric field symmetry of cylindrical vector (CV) femtosecond (fs) laser beams. It is shown that, highly controllable, periodic structures exhibiting sizes at nano-, micro- and dual-scale micro and nano scales can be directly written on Ni upon line and large area scanning with ra…
We report a visible-range nonlinear photoluminescence (PL) from graphene oxide (GO) flakes excited by near-infrared femtosecond laser light. PL intensity has nonlinear dependence on the laser power, implying a multiphoton excitation process, and also strongly depends on a linear polarization orientation of excitation light, being at maximum when it is parallel to flakes. We show that PL can be used for a fully three-dimensional label-free imaging of isotropic, nematic, and lamellar liquid crystalline dispersions of GO flakes in water. This nonlinear PL is of interest for applications in direct…
We report on a strong photoluminescence (PL) enhancement of monolayer MoS2 through defect engineering and oxygen bonding. Micro- PL and Raman images clearly reveal that the PL enhancement occurs at cracks/defects formed during high temperature vacuum annealing. The PL enhancement at crack/defect sites could be as high as thousands of times after considering the laser spot size. The main reasons of such huge PL enhancement include: (1) the oxygen chemical adsorption induced heavy p doping and the conversion from trion to exciton; (2) the suppression of non-radiative recombination of excitons at…
The physical mechanism for metal ablation induced by femtosecond laser irradiation was investigated. Results of calculations based on finite-temperature density functional theory (FTDFT) indicate that condensed copper becomes unstable at high electron temperatures due to an increase of electronic entropy at large volume, where the local density of states near the Fermi energy increases. Based on these results, an electronic entropy-driven (EED) model is proposed to explain metal ablation with a femtosecond laser. In addition, a mathematical model is developed for simulation of the laser ablati…
Polarization control of terahertz wave is a challenging subject in terahertz science and technology. Here, we report a simple method to control polarization state of the terahertz wave in terahertz generation process. At room temperature, terahertz radiation from a noncentrosymmetric and chiral oxide, sillenite Bi$_{12}$GeO$_{20}$, is observed by the irradiation of linearly polarized femtosecond laser pulses at 800 nm. The polarization state of the emitted terahertz wave is found to be elliptic with an ellipticity of $\sim$0.37$\pm$0.10. Furthermore, the ellipticity was altered to a nearly zer…
A sample-based stochastic model is presented to investigate the effects of uncertainties of various input parameters, including laser fluence, laser pulse duration, thermal conductivity constants for electron, and electron-lattice coupling factor, on solid-liquid phase change of gold film under nano- to femtosecond laser irradiation. Rapid melting and resolidification of a free standing gold film subject to nano- to femtosecond laser are simulated using a two-temperature model incorporated with the interfacial tracking method. The interfacial velocity and temperature are obtained by solving th…
Modern electronic devices utilize charge to transmit and store information. This leaves the information susceptible to external influences, such as radiation, that can introduce short timescale charge fluctuations and, long term, degrade electronic properties. Encoding information as spin polarizations offers an attractive alternative to electronic logic that should be robust to randomly polarized transient radiation effects. As a preliminary step towards radiation-resistant spintronic devices, we measure the spin properties of n-GaAs as a function of radiation fluence using time-resolved Kerr…
Exposure of metal surfaces to multiple ultrashort laser pulses under certain conditions leads to the formation of well-defined periodic surface structures. We show how the period of such structures in steel can be tuned over a wide range by controlling the complex interaction mechanisms triggered in the material. Amongst the different irradiation parameters that influence the properties of the induced structures, the angle of incidence of the laser beam occupies a prominent role. We present an experimental and theoretical investigation of this angle dependence in steel upon irradiation with la…
In this brief review we discuss the transient processes in solids under irradiation with femtosecond X-ray free-electron-laser (FEL) pulses and swift-heavy ions (SHI). Both kinds of irradiation produce highly excited electrons in a target on extremely short timescales. Transfer of the excess electronic energy into the lattice may lead to observable target modifications such as phase transitions and damage formation. Transient kinetics of material excitation and relaxation under FEL or SHI irradiation are comparatively discussed. The same origin for the electronic and atomic relaxation in both …
