Extreme Energy Density Confined Inside a Transparent Crystal: Status and Perspectives of Solid-Plasma-Solid Transformations
1
Laser Physics Centre, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
2
Centre for Micro-Photonics, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn VIC 3122, Australia
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Nanomaterials 2018, 8(7), 555; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano8070555
Received: 26 June 2018 / Revised: 17 July 2018 / Accepted: 19 July 2018 / Published: 21 July 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Laser-Based Nano Fabrication and Nano Lithography)
It was demonstrated during the past decade that an ultra-short intense laser pulse tightly-focused deep inside a transparent dielectric generates an energy density in excess of several MJ/cm . Such an energy concentration with extremely high heating and fast quenching rates leads to unusual solid-plasma-solid transformation paths, overcoming kinetic barriers to the formation of previously unknown high-pressure material phases, which are preserved in the surrounding pristine crystal. These results were obtained with a pulse of a Gaussian shape in space and in time. Recently, it has been shown that the Bessel-shaped pulse could transform a much larger amount of material and allegedly create even higher energy density than what was achieved with the Gaussian beam (GB) pulses. Here, we present a succinct review of previous results and discuss the possible routes for achieving higher energy density employing the Bessel beam (BB) pulses and take advantage of their unique properties.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
light-matter interaction; ultra-short laser pulses; high-pressure/density conditions; phase transitions
▼
Show Figures
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Gamaly, E.G.; Juodkazis, S.; Rode, A.V. Extreme Energy Density Confined Inside a Transparent Crystal: Status and Perspectives of Solid-Plasma-Solid Transformations. Nanomaterials 2018, 8, 555.
Show more citation formats
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.