Sub-diffraction-Limit Voids in Bulk Quartz Induced byFemtosecond Laser Pulses

When a powerful femtosecond laser pulse was tightly focused into a bulk quartz, plasma generation occurred only in a very small focal volume. This extremely confined interaction led to an explosive expansion and generated a sub-micrometre void with a diameter as small as 200-300nm. The dependence of the size of the void on the laser energy or pulse duration was investigated and the mechanism of this process was associated dominantly with the multiphoton ionization.