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Silicon is the material responsible for most of the technological developments during the past century, making it one of the most studied materials along different disciplines. However, there are still unturned stones regarding its superficial re-solidification after femtosecond laser-induced local melting. In this presentation, we report irradiation experiments with single femtosecond pulses (790 nm, 30 fs) with a spatially Gaussian distribution on two different types of silicon with orientations <111> and <100>. The surface modifications were studied in detail via different techniques, including optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy, spectroscopic imaging ellipsometry, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. We quantitatively estimate the resulting radial amorphous layer depth profiles with maximum thicknesses around some tenths of nanometers for fluences in between the melting and ablation thresholds. In particular, spectroscopic imaging ellipsometry (SIE) allowed fast data acquisition using multiple wavelengths to provide experimental measurements for calculating the nanometric radial amorphous layer thickness profiles with micrometric lateral resolution based on a thin-film layer model. SIE proved to be capable of detecting and measuring nanometric structural and chemical modifications (oxidation) on the studied laser spots. The accuracy of the SIE-based calculations is verified experimentally by characterizing an in-depth material lamella via high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (STEM-EDX). For completeness, we present a mathematical modelling for the melt layer thickness considering different optical absorption processes including one photon absorption, two photon absorption and free-carrier absorption, highlighting the relevance of the latter one in the femtosecond laser-induced melting of silicon.
Crystalline Silicon undergoes a complex phase-change dynamic of melting, amorphization, ablation and re-crystallization upon irradiation with high intensity ultra-short laser pulses [1]. The final state of such a modified surface spot depends on many factors, most notably the local fluence and the surface’s crystal orientation. In this study, we induced superficial structure and phase changes in Silicon <111> and <100> wafers using single femtosecond laser pulses (790 nm, 30 fs) for a range of different peak fluences. The resulting surface modifications were studied in great detail using a number of different techniques, including spectroscopic imaging ellipsometry (SIE), atomic force microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy within scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM-EDX).
Playing a pivotal role in this work, SIE provided non-destructive measurements for the calculation of the radial amorphous layer-thickness profiles of the irradiated spots using a two-layer thin-film model (Silicon dioxide and amorphous Silicon on a crystalline Silicon substrate). The measurements further allowed for the analysis of the oxide-layer modifications induced by the laser treatment. The results of the SIE-calculations were cross-checked by an in-depth material lamella via HRTEM and STEM-EDX.