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First-principles study of ultrafast bandgap dynamics in laser-excited \(\alpha\)-quartz

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Abstract

Femtosecond-laser-induced evolution of \(\alpha\)-quartz bandgap was calculated using first principles. First, time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) was used to describe excited electron dynamics during the laser pulse irradiation. Then, the temperature of excited electrons was estimated using finite-temperature DFT. Finally, the GW approximation was applied to calculate the electronic structure modification driven by hot electrons. As a result, an ultrafast decrease of the bandgap is observed during a 15-fs laser pulse with a drop of 35 % at laser intensities near the damage threshold.

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Data availability statement

The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The numerical calculations were performed using computer resources from GENCI, project gen7041.

Funding

The work was funded by IDEXLYON project of the University of Lyon within the program “Investissements d’Avenir”(ANR-16-IDEX-0005) and INTRALAS project (ANR-19-CE30-0036) operated by the French National Research Agency (ANR).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Hubert Curien UMR 5516, Institut d’Optique Graduate School, University of Lyon, UJM-Saint-Etienne, CNRS, Saint-Etienne, France

    Elena Kachan, Arshak Tsaturyan, Razvan Stoian & Jean-Philippe Colombier

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  1. Elena Kachan
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  2. Arshak Tsaturyan
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  3. Razvan Stoian
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Correspondence to Elena Kachan.

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Kachan, E., Tsaturyan, A., Stoian, R. et al. First-principles study of ultrafast bandgap dynamics in laser-excited \(\alpha\)-quartz. Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. 232, 2241–2245 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-022-00747-8

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