ULTRAFAST LASER-INDUCED ORDER-DISORDER TRANSITIONS IN SEMICONDUCTORS

Laser-induced ultrafast order-disorder transitions in silicon and gallium arsenide are studied by means of femtosecond time-resolved linear and nonlinear optical spectroscopy. Detailed measurements of the reflectivity and of the reflected second harmonic over a wide range of fluences reveal a complex picture of the phase transformation. We show that during the first 100 fs the changes of the optical constants and of the nonlinear optical susceptibility χ(2) are determined by the various electronic excitation processes and only to a lesser extent by the process of disordering. On the other hand, time-resolved measurements of reflectivity spectra indicate that the development of a Drude-like metallic spectrum takes a few hundred femtoseconds. Our data show that the laser-induced structural changes develop slower than previously believed, occurring on a time scale of a few hundred femtoseconds. © 1995 The American Physical Society.