Polarization effects in femtosecond laser induced amorphization of monocrystalline silicon

Highlights: • We have achieved the amorphization of monocrystalline silicon by femtosecond laser irradiation. • Horizontally polarized laser beam shows an enhancement in amorphization efficiency by a factor of 1.6–1.7 over the circularly polarized laser ablation. • This demonstrates that one can tune the amorphization efficiency through the polarization of irradiation laser. We have used femtosecond laser pulses to ablate monocrystalline silicon wafer. Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis of ablation surface indicates horizontally polarized laser beam shows an enhancement in amorphization efficiency by a factor of 1.6–1.7 over the circularly polarized laser ablation. This demonstrates that one can tune the amorphization efficiency through the polarization of irradiation laser.