Optimization of ultrafast laser generated low-energy ion beams from silicon targets

Razvan Stoian (1) , Alexandre Mermillod-Blondin (1) , Nadezhda M. Bulgakova (2) , Arkadi Rosenfeld (3) , Ingolf V. Hertel (3) , Maria Spyridaki (4) , Emannouel Koudoumas (4) , Panos Tzanetakis (4) , Costas Fotakis (4)

1 LHC - Laboratoire Hubert Curien
2 ITP - Institute of Thermophysics
3 MBI - Max-Born-Institut für Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie
4 IESL - Institute for Electronic Structure and Laser

We demonstrate the possibility to manipulate the kinetic properties of ion beams generated by ultrafast laser ablation of silicon. The versatility in regulating the sub-keV ion flux is achieved by implementing adaptive control of the temporal shape of incident laser pulses. Tunable characteristics for the charged beams are obtained using excitation synchronized with the phase-transformation dynamics, exploiting transitions to volatile fluid states with minimal energetic expenses.

Keywords: silicon; high-speed optical techniques; laser ablation; optical pulse shaping; laser tuning; vaporisation; elemental semiconductors; ion beams

Domains: Optics / Photonic

Razvan Stoian, Alexandre Mermillod-Blondin, Nadezhda M. Bulgakova, Arkadi Rosenfeld, Ingolf V. Hertel, et al.. Optimization of ultrafast laser generated low-energy ion beams from silicon targets. Applied Physics Letters, 2005, 87 (12), pp.124105. ⟨10.1063/1.2053355⟩. ⟨ujm-00357163⟩