title: Color center production by femtosecond pulse laser irradiation in LiF crystals.
abstract: We report the production of color centers in LiF single crystals by ultrashort high intensity laser pulses (60fs, 10 GW). An intensity threshold for color centers creation of 2 TW/cm(2) was determined, which is slightly smaller than the continuum generation threshold. We could identify a large amount of F centers that gave rise to aggregates such as F(2), F(2) (+) and F(3) (+). The proposed mechanism of formation is based on multiphoton excitation that also produce short lived F(2) (+) centers. It is also shown that it is possible to write tracks in the LiF crystals with dimensional control.
authors.forename: Lilia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Courrol
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Samad
authors.forename: Laércio
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gomez
authors.forename: Izilda
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ranieri
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baldochi
authors.forename: Anderson
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zanardi de Freitas
authors.forename: Nilson
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vieira