Several types of periodic ripple structures have been observed on the surface of solids that have been laser irradiated with beam intensities near their melting thresholds.1-7 We restrict our attention here to the coherent, onedimensional (RD) gratings induced by linearly polarized beams.3-7 These gratings have a period close to the free space laser wavelength (λ0) for normally incident beams and are normally found in the beam spot near the melt boundary (Fig. 1). The grating lines are always perpendicular to the optical electric field Ei independent of the crystallographic orientation of the sample.
Ultrashort, Strongly Focused Laser Pulses in Free Space