Femtosecond optical breakdown in silicon

We investigate photo-ionization, energy deposition, plasma formation and the ultrafast optical breakdown in crystalline silicon irradiated by intense near-infrared laser pulses with duration tau <= 100 fs. The occurrence of high-intensity breakdown was established by the sudden increase of the absorbed laser energy inside the bulk, which corresponds to threshold energy fluence Phi(th) > 1 J/cm(2). The optical breakdown is accompanied by severe spectral broadening of the transmitted pulse. For the studied irradiation conditions, we find that the threshold fluence increases linearly with the increase of the pulse duration, while the corresponding laser intensity threshold decreases. The effect of the high plasma density on the stability of diamond lattice is also examined. For near threshold fluences, when about 5 % of valence electrons are promoted into the conduction band, the Si-Si bonds are softened and large Fermi degeneracy pressure arises (with pressure up to 100 kbar). The mechanical instability of the diamond lattice suggests that the large number of electron-hole pairs leads directly to ultrafast melting of the crystal structure.