Silicon ablation by single ultrashort laser pulses of variable width in air and water

The ablation of silicon by single laser pulses of variable width (0.3–9.5 ps) with a wavelength of 515 nm has been comparatively studied in air and water. A nonmonotonic behavior of ablation thresholds with a minimum at 1.6 ps, which is due to achieving the thermalization time of the electron and ion subsystems in silicon, has been revealed. It has been shown that, with an increase in the pulse width in the considered width range, the efficiency of the ablation of silicon decreases by a factor of 2.5 in air and increases by a factor of 2 in water. This behavior of ablation in air is attributed to a partial transition from phase explosion to surface evaporation, which is suppressed in water.