Plastic deformation as nature of femtosecond laser writing in YAG crystal

Longitudinal inhomogeneity of tracks inscribed in a YAG crystal and the statistics of nonlinear transmittance of the writing beam is studied under conditions of direct femtosecond laser writing in non-thermal mode. Nonlinear transmittance fluctuations inherent in the laser writing were discovered, and their correlation with track inhomogeneity is established. A model of femtosecond laser writing in crystals is built that includes three modes of plastic deformation in the laser impact zone. The modification threshold of the femtosecond direct laser writing is identified with reaching yield stress.

A microscope image processing method for analyzing TLIPSS structures

The paper describes a method for processing microimages of thermochemical laser-induced periodic surface structures (TLIPSS) to quantify their structural order and defects. Results of its application for the analysis of microimages of periodic structures formed in 30-nm chromium films by an astigmatically focused femtosecond Gaussian laser beam have been presented. Dependences of the relative area of the beam-modified region, the area of defects, and the ordering of the periodic structures on the scanning speed and the writing beam power have been obtained.