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Nanosecond dynamics of a gallium mirror's light-induced reflectivity change

Nanosecond dynamics of a gallium mirror's light-induced reflectivity change
Nanosecond dynamics of a gallium mirror's light-induced reflectivity change
Transient pump-probe optical reflectivity measurements of the nano- to microsecond dynamics of a fully reversible, light-induced, surface-assisted metallization of gallium interfaced with silica are reported. The metallization leads to a considerable increase in the interface's reflectivity when solid α-gallium is on the verge of melting. The reflectivity change was found to be a cumulative effect that grows with light intensity and pulse duration. The reflectivity relaxes back to that of α-gallium when the excitation is withdrawn in a time that increases critically at gallium's melting point. It is shown that thermal processes cannot account for the effect and so a mechanism based on a nonthermal light-induced structural phase transition is proposed.
nonlinear optics, optical properties, thin films, gallium
1550-235X
165207-[4pp]
Albanis, V.
c5691c2e-71bc-4ca2-8d65-c0396fa228c2
Dhanjal, S.
a3f4fa8d-654f-4162-bd38-67c9b2d2f136
Fedotov, V.A.
3725f5cc-2d0b-4e61-95c5-26d187c84f25
MacDonald, K.F.
76c84116-aad1-4973-b917-7ca63935dba5
Zheludev, N.I.
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6
Petropoulos, P.
522b02cc-9f3f-468e-bca5-e9f58cc9cad7
Richardson, D.J.
ebfe1ff9-d0c2-4e52-b7ae-c1b13bccdef3
Emelyanov, V.I.
5d5733ff-8ac4-4faf-8c8b-0086161a23a6
Albanis, V.
c5691c2e-71bc-4ca2-8d65-c0396fa228c2
Dhanjal, S.
a3f4fa8d-654f-4162-bd38-67c9b2d2f136
Fedotov, V.A.
3725f5cc-2d0b-4e61-95c5-26d187c84f25
MacDonald, K.F.
76c84116-aad1-4973-b917-7ca63935dba5
Zheludev, N.I.
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6
Petropoulos, P.
522b02cc-9f3f-468e-bca5-e9f58cc9cad7
Richardson, D.J.
ebfe1ff9-d0c2-4e52-b7ae-c1b13bccdef3
Emelyanov, V.I.
5d5733ff-8ac4-4faf-8c8b-0086161a23a6

Albanis, V., Dhanjal, S., Fedotov, V.A., MacDonald, K.F., Zheludev, N.I., Petropoulos, P., Richardson, D.J. and Emelyanov, V.I. (2001) Nanosecond dynamics of a gallium mirror's light-induced reflectivity change. Physical Review B, 63 (16), 165207-[4pp]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.63.165207).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Transient pump-probe optical reflectivity measurements of the nano- to microsecond dynamics of a fully reversible, light-induced, surface-assisted metallization of gallium interfaced with silica are reported. The metallization leads to a considerable increase in the interface's reflectivity when solid α-gallium is on the verge of melting. The reflectivity change was found to be a cumulative effect that grows with light intensity and pulse duration. The reflectivity relaxes back to that of α-gallium when the excitation is withdrawn in a time that increases critically at gallium's melting point. It is shown that thermal processes cannot account for the effect and so a mechanism based on a nonthermal light-induced structural phase transition is proposed.

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More information

Published date: 4 April 2001
Keywords: nonlinear optics, optical properties, thin films, gallium

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 13670
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/13670
ISSN: 1550-235X
PURE UUID: 2e5e1e48-b81a-4dd0-bdfc-193f5bf0553d
ORCID for K.F. MacDonald: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3877-2976
ORCID for N.I. Zheludev: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1013-6636
ORCID for P. Petropoulos: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1576-8034
ORCID for D.J. Richardson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7751-1058

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 07 Jan 2005
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:10

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Contributors

Author: V. Albanis
Author: S. Dhanjal
Author: V.A. Fedotov
Author: K.F. MacDonald ORCID iD
Author: N.I. Zheludev ORCID iD
Author: P. Petropoulos ORCID iD
Author: D.J. Richardson ORCID iD
Author: V.I. Emelyanov

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