Nanoindentation and birefringence measurements on fused silica specimen exposed to low-energy femtosecond pulses

Femtosecond laser pulses used in a regime below the ablation threshold have two noticeable effects on Fused Silica (alpha-SiO2): they locally increase the material refractive index and modify its HF etching selectivity. The nature of the structural changes induced by femtosecond laser pulses in fused silica is not fully understood. In this paper, we report on nanoindentation and birefringence measurements on fused silica exposed to low-energy femtosecond laser pulses. Our findings further back the hypothesis of localized densification effect even at low energy regime. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America