Abstract

Optical breakdown by femtosecond and nanosecond laser pulses in transparent dielectrics produces an ionized region of dense plasma confined within the bulk of the material. This ionized region is responsible for broadband radiation that accompanies the breakdown process. Spectroscopic measurements of the accompanying light have been used to show that, depending on the laser parameters, the spectra may originate from plasma-induced second-harmonic generation, supercontinuum generation, or thermal emission by the plasma. By monitoring the emission from the ionized region, one can ascertain the predominant breakdown mechanism and the morphology of the damage region.

© 2005 Optical Society of America

Breakdown threshold and plasma formation in femtosecond laser–solid interaction

D. von der Linde and H. Schüler
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 13(1) 216-222 (1996)

Analysis of nonlinear self-interaction of femtosecond pulses during high-order harmonic generation in laser-produced plasma

Rashid A. Ganeev, Motoyoshi Baba, Masayuki Suzuki, and Hiroto Kuroda
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 23(7) 1332-1337 (2006)

Remote atmospheric breakdown for standoff detection by using an intense short laser pulse

Antonio Ting, Ilya Alexeev, Daniel Gordon, Eldridge Briscoe, Joseph Peñano, Richard Hubbard, Phillip Sprangle, and Glenn Rubel
Appl. Opt. 44(25) 5315-5320 (2005)

Stable generation of high-order harmonics of femtosecond laser radiation from laser produced plasma plumes at 1 kHz pulse repetition rate

Christopher Hutchison, Rashid A. Ganeev, Tobias Witting, Felix Frank, William A. Okell, John W. G. Tisch, and Jon P. Marangos
Opt. Lett. 37(11) 2064-2066 (2012)

Modeling optical breakdown in dielectrics during ultrafast laser processing

Ching-Hua Fan and Jon P. Longtin
Appl. Opt. 40(18) 3124-3131 (2001)