Energy dependence of effective electron mass and laser-induced ionization of wide band-gap solids

Abstract

Most of the traditional theoretical models of laser-induced ionization were developed under the assumption of constant effective electron mass or weak dependence of the effective mass on electron energy. Those assumptions exclude from consideration all the effects resulting from significant increase of the effective mass with increasing of electron energy in real the conduction band. Promotion of electrons to the states with high effective mass can be done either via laserinduced electron oscillations or via electron-particle collisions. Increase of the effective mass during laser-material interactions can result in specific regimes of ionization. Performing a simple qualitative analysis by comparison of the constant-mass approximation vs realistic dependences of the effective mass on electron energy, we demonstrate that the traditional ionization models provide reliable estimation of the ionization rate in a very limited domain of laser intensity and wavelength. By taking into account increase of the effective mass with electron energy, we demonstrate that special regimes of high-intensity photo-ionization are possible depending on laser and material parameters. Qualitative analysis of the energy dependence of the effective mass also leads to conclusion that the avalanche ionization can be stopped by the effect of electron trapping in the states with large values of the effective mass.