Femtosecond laser induced damaging inside fused silica detected by a single-pulse ultrafast measurement system.

ABSTRACT

The dynamics of damage inside the fused silica induced by a femtosecond laser has been characterized by a single-pulse ultrafast measurement system that is built upon the pump-probe mechanism. Our investigation disclosed the quantitative relationship between the size of the damaged area and the pulse energy. The dynamic measurement experiments showed that the radial size of the damaged area increased rapidly from 0 to 21 µm within ∼10 ps before stabilizing at 21 µm with the pulse energy of 1.1 mJ, which follows the rule of Boltzmann function. Moreover, we demonstrated that the structure inside the damaged area kept changing for about 200 ps before the formation of a double-void structure. The developed system alongside the proposed analysis method is expected to be of great importance in understanding the dynamics of laser-induced damage process in laser micromachining.