We discuss studies of laser damage inside various transparent materials (glasses, polymers, sapphire, diamond) caused by femtosecond lasers at 515, 800, and 1030 nm, with nJ to mJ pulse energies, single-shot to 2 MHz repetition rates, single and 10 ns burst-mode pulses, chirped pulses, and linear, circular, and radial beam polarizations. Experiments have created high-aspect damage features and voids using aberration-controlled focusing, axicon-formed Bessel beams with <1 μm diameter central lobes extending hundreds of microns through the materials, and tightly focused lines (~1 μm × <100 μm). Mechanisms include self-focusing, filamentation, and material expansion/compaction and expulsion.
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