Abstract

An ultrafast (femtosecond/attosecond) duration is shorter than many physical/chemical characteristic times, which makes it possible for manipulate/adjust/interfere electron dynamics such as excitations, ionizations, recombination, densities and temperatures of electrons. This opens new possibilities for controlling the transient localized material properties and corresponding phase change mechanisms, which are critical in laser micro/nano fabrication. This study proposes to control electron dynamics to change transient localized material properties by shaping femtosecond pulse trains for high-quality and high-precision laser micro/nano manufacturing. In this study, the feasibility of the proposed idea is theoretically and experimentally validated by the first-principles calculations, plasma model and experiments’ results.

© 2012 Optical Society of America