Conical emission of Ti : sapphire femtosecond laser pulses propagating in water

Conical emission is investigated for Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser pulses propagating in water. The colored rings can be observed in the forward direction due to the constructive and destructive interference of transverse wavevector, which are induced by the spatio-temporal gradient of the free-electron density. With increasing input laser energy, due to filamentation and pulse splitting induced by the plasma created by multiphoton excitation of electrons from the valence band to the conduction band, the on-axis spectrum of the conical emission is widely broadened and strongly modulated with respect to input laser spectrum, and finally remains fairly constant at higher laser energy due to intensity clamping in the filaments.

Efficient GeV ion generation by ultraintense circularly polarized laser pulse

The interaction of an ultraintense circularly polarized laser pulse and a solid target is studied by one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Ions at the front of the target are reflected by a moving quasisteady electrostatic field and obtain a relativistic velocity. At a laser intensity of 10(22) W/cm(2), almost half of the laser energy is transferred to ions and GeV ions are obtained. Effects of laser polarization state and target thickness on the laser energy conversion are investigated. It is found that a circularly polarized laser pulse can accelerate ions more efficiently than a linearly polarized laser pulse at the same laser and target parameters. A monoenergetic ion bunch is obtained for the ultrathin target, which is accelerated as a single entity. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Crystallization of amorphous Si films by pulsed laser annealing and their structural characteristics

Nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) films were prepared by pulsed laser annealed crystallization of amorphous silicon (alpha-Si) films on SiO2-coated quartz or glass substrates. The effect of laser energy density on structural characteristics of nc-Si films was investigated. The Ni-induced crystallization of the a-Si films was also discussed. The surface morphology and microstructure of these films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and Raman scattering spectroscopy. The results show that not only can the alpha-Si films be crystallized by the laser annealing technique, but also the size of Si nanocrystallites can be controlled by varying the laser energy density. Their average size is about 4-6 nm. We present a surface tension and interface strain model used for describing the laser annealed crystallization of the alpha-Si films. The doping of Ni atoms may effectively reduce the threshold value of laser energy density to crystallize the alpha-Si films, and the flocculent-like Si nanostructures could be formed by Ni-induced crystallization of the alpha-Si films.

Structural and optical properties of ZnO thin films on glass substrate grown by laser-ablating Zn target in oxygen atmosphere

C-axis-orientated ZnO thin films were prepared on glass substrates by pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) technique in an oxygen-reactive atmosphere, using a metallic Zn target. The effects of growth condition such as laser energy and substrate temperature on the structural and optical properties of ZnO films had been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission spectra and room-temperature (RT) photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The results showed that the thickness, crystallite size, and compactness of ZnO films increased with the laser energy and substrate temperature. Both the absorption edges and the UV emission peaks of the films exhibited redshift, and UV emission intensity gradually increased as the laser energy and substrate temperature increased. From these results, it was concluded that crystalline quality of ZnO films was improved with increasing laser energy and substrate temperature. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.N. All rights reserved.

Experimental study on K alpha X-ray emission from intense femtosecond laser-solid interactions

The characteristics of K alpha X-ray sources generated by p-polarized femtosecond laser-solid interactions are experimentally studied in the relativistic regime. By use of knife-edge image technique and a single-photon-counting X-ray CCD camera, we obtaine the source size, the spectrum and the conversion efficiency of the Ka X-ray sources. The experimental results show that the conversion efficiency of Ka photons reaches an optimum value of 7.08 x 10(-6)/sr at the laser intensity of 1.6 x 10(18) W/cm(2), which is different from the Reich's simulation results (Reich et al., 2000 Phys. Rev. Lett. 84 4846). We find that about 10% of laser energy is converted into the forward hot electrons at the laser intensity of 1.6 x 10(18) W/cm(2).

EXCIMER-LASER DOPING OF SPIN-ON DOPANT IN SILICON

Solid films containing phosphorus impurities were formed on p-type silicon wafer surface by traditional spin-on of commercially available dopants. The doping process is accomplished by irradiating the sample with a 308 nm XeCl pulsed excimer laser. Shallow junctions with a high concentration of doped impurities were obtained. The measured impurity profile was ''box-like'', and is very suitable for use in VLSI devices. The characteristics of the doping profile against laser fluence (energy density) and number of laser pulses were studied. From these results, it is found that the sheet resistance decreases with the laser fluence above a certain threshold, but it saturates as the energy density is further increased. The junction depth increases with the number of pulses and the laser energy density. The results suggest that this simple spin-on dopant pre-deposition technique can be used to obtain a well controlled doping profile similar to the technique using chemical vapor in pulsed laser doping process.

Characteristics of plasma induced by interaction of a free-oscillated laser pulse with a coal target in air and combustible gas

Plasma in the air is successfully induced by a free-oscillated Nd:YAG laser pulse with a peak power of 10(2-3) W. The initial free electrons for the cascade breakdown process are from the ablated particles from the surface of a heated coal target, likewise induced by the focused laser beam. The laser field compensates the energy loss of the plasma when the corresponding temperature and the images are investigated by fitting the experimental spectra of B-2 Sigma(+) -> X-2 Sigma(+) band of CN radicals in the plasma with the simulated spectra and a 4-frame CCD camera. The electron density is estimated using a simplified Kramer formula. As this interaction occurs in a gas mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, the formation and development of the plasma are weakened or restrained due to the chaining branch reaction in which the OH radicals are accumulated and the laser energy is consumed. Moreover, this laser ignition will initiate the combustion or explosion process of combustible gas and the minimum ignition energy is measured at different initial pressures. The differences in the experimental results compared to those induced by a nanosecond Q-switched laser pulse with a peak power of 10(6-8) W are also discussed. (C) 2009 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Micro-shock waves generated inside a fluid jet impinging on plane wall

An Nd:glass laser pulse (18 ns, 1.38 J) is focused in a tiny area of about 100-mum diam under ambient conditions to produce micro-shock waves. The laser is focused above a planar surface with a typical standoff distance of about 4 mm, The laser energy is focused inside a supersonic circular jet of carbon dioxide gas produced by a nozzle with internal diameter of 2.9 mm and external diameter of 8 mm, Nominal value of the Mach number of the jet is around 2 with the corresponding pressure ratio of 7.5 (stagnation pressure/static pressure at the exit of the nozzle), The interaction process of the micro-shock wave generated inside the supersonic jet with the plane wall is investigated using double-pulse holographic interferometry. A strong surface vortex field with subsequent generation of a side jet propagating outward along the plane wail is observed. The interaction of the micro-shock wave with the cellular structure of the supersonic jet does not seem to influence the near surface features of the flowfield. The development of the coherent structures near the nozzle exit due to the upstream propagation of pressure waves seems to be affected by the outward propagating micro-shock wave. Mach reflection is observed when the micro-shock wave interacts with the plane wall at a standoff distance of 4 mm, The Mach stem is slightly deflected, indicating strong boundary-layer and viscous effects near the wall. The interaction process is also simulated numerically using an axisymmetric transient laminar Navier-Stokes solver. Qualitative agreement between experimental and numerical results is good.

Semi-gas kinetics model for performance modeling of flowing chemical oxygen-iodine lasers (COIL)

A semi-gas kinetics (SGK) model for performance analyses of flowing chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) is presented. In this model, the oxygen-iodine reaction gas flow is treated as a continuous medium, and the effect of thermal motions of particles of different laser energy levels on the performances of the COIL is included and the velocity distribution function equations are solved by using the double-parameter perturbational method. For a premixed flow, effects of different chemical reaction systems, different gain saturation models and temperature, pressure, yield of excited oxygen, iodine concentration and frequency-shift on the performances of the COIL are computed, and the calculated output power agrees well with the experimental data. The results indicate that the power extraction of the SGK model considering 21 reactions is close to those when only the reversible pumping reaction is considered, while different gain saturation models and adjustable parameters greatly affect the output power, the optimal threshold gain range, and the length of power extraction.

透明光学材料中缺陷吸收激光能量引起的热应力与断裂

利用热弹性理论分析了在光学材料中由于缺陷吸收激光能量引起的温度和热应力分布，并且针对一个简单的裂纹模型分析了热应力产生的应力强度因子，给出了一些主要参数对于应力强度因子的影响的规律。

YAG激光毛化技术进展

二十世纪八十年代，当比利时冶金研究中心(CRM)开发出CO_2激光毛化冷轧辊技术后，尝试用YAG激光进行轧辊毛化一直吸引着众多的研究者，这是因为YAG(1.06μm)激光波长比CO_2(10.6μm)激光波长短一个量级，材料对YAG激光有更高的吸收率，并用YAG激光可以聚焦到更小的光斑尺寸，同时使用电信号驱动的声光开关技术便于对毛化分布进行可设定控制。但是用传统声光调制的YAG激光虽然可以碇以很高的脉冲频率(>30kHz)，但单脉冲有量仅为10mJ左右，难以达到辊面毛化粗糙度的要求，因此人们认为YAG激光用于毛化的主要困难是脉冲能量太小。

Plasma channeling by multiple short-pulse lasers

Channeling by a train of laser pulses into homogeneous and inhomogeneous plasmas is studied using particle-in-cell simulation. When the pulse duration and the interval between the successive pulses are appropriate, the laser pulse train can channel into the plasma deeper than a single long-pulse laser of similar peak intensity and total energy. The increased penetration distance can be attributed to the repeated actions of the ponderomotive force, the continuous between-pulse channel lengthening by the inertially evacuating ions, and the suppression of laser-driven plasma instabilities by the intermittent laser-energy cut-offs.

飞秒激光在石英玻璃中诱导微爆炸的理论研究

利用有限元方法建立了二维模型，研究了飞秒激光作用下石英玻璃中导带电子的产生、激光能量的沉积、导带电子和能量扩散等微观过程．计算了导带电子扩散引起的局部净电荷及其形成的静电场分布，初步揭示了微爆炸的演化过程．

飞秒双脉冲激光在硅和石英中的光学破坏

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.

飞秒激光对氟化镁烧蚀机理研究

用扫描电镜（SEM）研究了氟化镁在800nm超短脉冲激光作用下的单枪表面烧蚀形貌．根据烧蚀斑面积与激光脉冲能量间的对数关系，测得烧蚀阈值与激光脉宽的关系曲线（55—750fs）．计算了导带电子的双光子吸收，改进了多速率方程模型．很好地解释了实验结果．