Non reciprocal writing and chirality in femtosecond laser irradiated silica.
We ascertain by measuring the surface topography of a cleaved sample in which damage lines have been written in volume by scanning with a femtosecond laser, that matter shearing occur along the laser track with alternating sign (scissor or chiral effect). We note that the shearing in the head of the laser tracks change its sign with the change in scanning direction (pen effect or non reciprocal writing). We also show that nanostructures in the head are nano-shearing, with all the same sign whatever the direction of writing may be. We suggest that symmetries revealed by the shearing mimic the laser induced electron plasma density structures and inform on their unusual symmetries induced by the laser beam structures.
Poumellec
B
B
Institut de Chimie Moléculaire et des Matériaux d'Orsay, UMR CNRS-UPS 8182, Université de Paris Sud, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France. bertrand.poumellec@u-psud.fr
Lancry
M
M
Poulin
J-C
JC
Ani-Joseph
S
S