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Phase Transitions Induced By Femtosecond Pulses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

E. N. Glezer
Affiliation:
Division of Applied Sciences and Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
L. Huang
Affiliation:
Division of Applied Sciences and Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
Y. Siegal
Affiliation:
Division of Applied Sciences and Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
J. P. Callan
Affiliation:
Division of Applied Sciences and Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
E. Mazur
Affiliation:
Division of Applied Sciences and Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
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Abstract

Optical studies of semiconductors under intense femtosecond laser pulse excitation suggest that an ultrafast phase transition takes places before the electronic system has time to thermally equilibrate with the lattice. The excitation of a critical density of valence band electrons destabilizes the covalent bonding in the crystal, resulting in a structural phase transition. The deformation of the lattice leads to a decrease in the average bonding-antibonding splitting and a collapse of the band-gap. Direct optical measurements of the dielectric constant and second-order nonlinear susceptibility are used to determine the time evolution of the phase transition.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1996

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