It was noted that, over a range of fluences, pulsed laser irradiation (308nm) of cleaved monocrystalline material could produce a fluorescent plume on the side which was opposite to the incident light. It was shown that Fresnel diffraction features at the front surface controlled the formation of localized interactions on the other side. At fluences which were below the threshold value for plume formation on the front surface, large areas of the rear surface could be melted and ablated without fracture or pitting. At higher fluences, defect accumulation on (or near to) the front surface eventually led to a front surface plume, and eliminated the rear-surface plume. The use of mechanical treatments strongly affected the evolution of these features, due to the production of strongly absorbing point defects.

R.L.Webb, S.C.Langford, J.T.Dickinson: Journal of Applied Physics, 1996, 80[12], 7057-64