Laser-induced ionization and intrinsic breakdown of wide band-gap solids

A simple scaling of bulk laser-induced breakdown threshold for wide band-gap solids is derived on the basis of a recent modification of the Keldysh photo-ionization model [43, 46]. Contrary to most traditional models, the modification is based on rigorous energy dependence of reduced effective electron–hole mass. The dependence leads to a specific ionization regime with an extremely high ionization rate resulting in intensive generation of conduction-band electrons. The regime is characterized by a well-determined threshold intensity that is proposed to be associated with the threshold of bulk intrinsic laser-induced breakdown (LIB) by visible and near-infra-red laser radiation. That allows deriving dependence of LIB threshold on laser and material parameters. The presented model provides explanation for the experimental results on LIB thresholds that have not received theoretical interpretation. In particular, it reproduces empirical dependence of breakdown threshold on the average inter-atomic spacing derived from the experimental data. The LIB threshold evaluated from the presented model is very close to experimental data on bulk LIB by tightly focused beams in wide band-gap solids.