Abstract

A model SiO 2 thin film system with nanoscale absorbing defects (gold nanoparticles) is employed with the goal of unraveling the connection between the pulsed-laser-energy absorption process inside a single nanoscale defect and the resulting film damage morphology. For this purpose, gold nanoparticles are lodged at a well-defined depth inside a SiO 2 monolayer film. Particle sites, as well as damage craters generated at these locations after 351-nm pulsed- laser irradiation, are mapped by means of atomic force microscopy. The results of this mapping confirm mechanism of damage that involves initiation in the nanoscale defect followed by absorption spreading out to the surrounding matrix. At low laser fluences (below optically detected damage onset), the probability of damage crater formation and the amount of the material vaporized is, to within +/- 25% of the average value, almost independent of the particle size. Inhomogeneities in the particle environment are held responsible for variances in the laser-energy absorption process and, consequently, for the observed particle/damage crater correlation behavior. The nanoscale damage threshold is introduced as a laser fluence causing localized melting without significant vaporization.

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