Determination of the temporal structure of femtosecond laser pulses by means of laser-induced air plasma

A new approach is presented to reveal the temporal structure of femtosecond laser pulses by recording the correspond- ing time-resolved shadowgraphs of the laser-induced air plasma. It is shown that the temporal structures of femtosecond laser pulses, normally not observable by the ordinary intensity autocorrelator, can be detected through intuitively analyz- ing the ultrafast evolution process of the air plasma induced by the femtosecond laser pulses under examination. With this method, existence of pre- and post-pulses has been clearly unveiled within the time window of 4-150 fs in reference with the main 50-fs laser pulses output from a commercial 1-kHz femtosecond laser amplifier. The unique advantage of the proposed method is that it can directly provide valuable information about the pulse temporal structures＇ effect on the laser-induced ionization or material ablation.

Gigahertz longitudinal acoustic phonons originating from ultrafast ligand field transitions in hematite thin films

The creation and propagation of longitudinal acoustic phonons （LAPs） in high quality hematite thin films （α-Fe203） epitaxially grown on different substrates （BaTiO3, SrTiO3, and LaAlO3） are investigated using the femtosecond pump- probe technique. Transient reflection measurements （AR/R） indicate the photo-excited electron dynamics, and the initial decay less than 1 ps and the slow decay of -500 ps are attributed to the electron-LO phonon coupling and electron-hole nonradiative recombination, respectively. LAPs in α-Fe2O3 film can be created by ultrafast excitation of the ligand field state, such as the ligand field transitions under 800-nm excitation as well as the ligand to metal charge-transfer with 400- nm excitation. The strain modulations of the sound velocity and the out-of-plane elastic properties are demonstrated in α-Fe2O3 film on different substrates.

Sensitivity Improvements for Picosecond Ultrasonic Thickness Measurements in Gold and Tungsten Nanoscale Films

Picosecond ultrasonics,as a nondestructive and noncontact method,can be employed for nanoscale metallic film thickness measurements.The sensitivity of the system,which determines the measurement precision and practicability of this technique,is often limited by the weak intensity of the ultrasonic signal.To solve this problem,we investigate the distinct mechanisms involved in picosecond ultrasonic thickness measurement for two types of metals,namely tungsten(W)and gold(Au).For thickness measurement in W films,theory and simulation show that optimizing the pump and probe laser wavelengths,which determine the intensity and shape of the ultrasonic signal,is critical to improving measurement sensitivity,while for Au film measurements,where acoustic-induced beam distortion is dominant,the signal intensity can be optimized by selecting an appropriate aperture size and sample position.The above approaches are validated in experiments.A dual-wavelength pump-probe system is constructed based on a passively mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser.The smoothing method and multipeak Gaussian fitting are employed for the extraction of ultrasonic time-of-flight.Subnanometer measurement precision is achieved in a series of W and Au films with thicknesses of 43-750 nm.This work can be applied to various high-precision,noncontact measurements of metal film thickness in the semiconductor industry.