Interference Measurement of Superposition of Laser-Induced Shock Waves in Water

Akihiro Takita
+
and Yoshio Hayasaki
Center for Optical Research and Education (CORE), Utsunomiya University, 7-1-2 Yoto, Utsunomiya 321-8585, Japan
Received February 28, 2009; revised April 17, 2009; accepted April 28, 2009; published online September 24, 2009
Time-resolved phase distributions of laser-induced breakdowns and the subsequent shock waves generated by two pulses in water were
observed by a pumpprobe interference microscopy. When the two pulses overlapped temporally, the optical interference of the two pulses
resulted in a fluctuation in pulse energy inducing breakdown. However, the effect of the optical interference could be avoided by delaying
one pulse by a time longer than the pulse duration. When shock waves emitted from two breakdown points overlapped, the pressure in the
overlapping region was the sum of the pressures of the individual shock waves, showing the possibility of shock synthesis, such as
pressure enhancement and wavefront shaping, by inducing multiple breakdowns. # 2009 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
DOI: 10.1143/JJAP.48.09LD04
1. Introduction
When an intense laser pulse is irradiated in water, a high-
temperature plasma that causes a high-pressure shock wave
and a cavitation bubble is generated through laser-induced
breakdown (LIB).
13)
LIB using femtosecond laser pulses
has the capability to generate a high-pressure shock wave
and a cavitation bubble with little thermal damage to the
surrounding materials and has been investigated for appli-
cations to cell processing,
4,5)
optical trapping,
6)
and uidic
control.
7)
Therefore, LIB has attracted a great deal of interest
in the investigation of laser-induced ultrafast phenomena.
As described in ref. 3, when a femtosecond laser pulse is
focused inside water and the focal spot becomes suciently
intense to excite two-photon absorption (or higher), a series
of laser-induced phenomena arises. Within 1030 ps, a
micrometer-scale, highly excited plasma is generated, which
rapidly expands in a 30200 ps with ultrasonic velocity. The
expansion simultaneously compresses the surrounding ma-
terial with the generated shock wavefront until the expansion
velocity is dampened to acoustic velocity. Recently, time-
resolved observations using interferometry
8,9)
and digital
holography
1012)
have been performed to investigate the
light-induced nonlinear change and time evolution of LIB.
A phase distribution obtained by the interference technique
indicated a refractive index change of the medium caused by
the existence of a high-intensity pulse, a high-density
plasma, a high-pressure shock wave, and a rareed cavita-
tion bubble. For biological applications, an improvement in
processing speed is required to prevent the eect of
movement of biological tissues. To improve the processing
speed and eciency of pulse energy utilization, a parallel
processing method is required. To the best of our knowledge,
this study is the rst to investigate the phenomena induced
around LIB at two points by femtosecond laser irradiation
with interference microscopy.
We investigated the temporal evolutions of the two
breakdowns. The temporal phase changes of the two
breakdowns were measured using a pumpprobe interfer-
ence microscope. First, phase changes caused by two
temporally overlapping and spatially separated breakdowns
were observed to demonstrate the eect of optical inter-
ference between the irradiation pulses. Second, the phase
change caused by two temporally and spatially separated
breakdowns was measured to determine the increase in
pressure due to two overlapping shock waves.
2. Experimental Procedure
Figure 1 shows the optical setup of the pumpprobe
interference microscope. The pump pulse was a regener-
atively amplied femtosecond laser (Coherent Legend) pulse
with a center wavelength of 800 nm. The pulse duration was
45 fs on the laser output plane. The pump pulses were
spatially divided by a beam splitter and focused inside a
sample with a 40 microscope objective (Edmund Optics)
with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.55 to produce two
optical breakdowns in the sample. The sample was an 8-mm-
thick layer of pure water sandwiched between two glass
coverslips. The thickness of the sample was controlled by
adjusting the volume of the water and conrmed by
measuring the separation between two damaged areas
caused by the femtosecond laser irradiation on the front
and back interfaces between the water and the coverslip. The
probe pulse was a second-harmonic femtosecond laser pulse
generated by a barium borate (BBO) crystal. The probe pulse
was radiated onto the sample with a delay time (t) relative
to the arrival of the pump pulse. The delay was changed with
an optical delay line. After passing through the sample, the
probe pulse was introduced into the interferometer. Inter-
ference fringes were acquired with a charge-coupled device
(CCD) image sensor (Bitran BU-40). To obtain the external
shape of the shock wave, a shadowgraph was taken by
closing a shutter inserted into one arm of the interferometer.
The phase change distribution was obtained by analyzing the
fringes with the Fourier ltering method.
Consider the complex amplitude of an object wave which
is the probe pulse at the CCD image sensor with the shutter
closed:
g(x; y) = A(x; y) exp[i(x; y)]; (1)
Femtosecond
laser system
BS Pump pulse (800 nm)
BBO
Optical delay line
P
r
o
b
e

p
u
l
s
e

(
4
0
0

n
m
)
Sample OL DM
BS
Right angle
prism
CCD image sensor
Lens
Mirror
Shutter
Mirror
BS
Fig. 1. Experimental setup.
+
E-mail address: takita@opt.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp
Japanese Journal of Applied Physics 48 (2009) 09LD04 REGULAR PAPER
09LD04-1 # 2009 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
where A(x; y) is the amplitude distribution and (x; y) is the
phase distribution. Then, with the shutter open, the reference
wave, which is the same as the object wave but with an angle
of in the XZ plane, is described by
r(x; y) = A(x
/
; y) exp{i[(x
/
; y) 2x cos =]}; (2)
where x
/
= (x= cos ) x
0
. Here, x
0
is a lateral displacement
of the reference beam relative to the object beam. Fringes
formed on the CCD image sensor are described by
[g(x; y) r(x; y)[
2
= [A(x; y)[
2
[A(x
/
; y)[
2
A(x; y)A(x
/
; y) exp{i[(x
/
; y) (x
/
; y) 2x cos =]}
A(x; y)A(x
/
; y) exp{i[(x
/
; y) (x
/
; y) 2x cos =]}:
(3)
If the spatial frequency of A(x; y) is smaller than
2cos()=, the rst two terms, the third term, and the
fourth term on the right-hand side of eq. (3) can be separated
in the Fourier plane. If the spatial extents of A(x; y) and
(x; y) are smaller than x
0
, then g(x; y) and r(x; y) can be
separated in the image plane. Therefore, g(x; y) can be
obtained by Fourier ltering and clipping of the fringe
pattern. The phase change caused by the shock wave
pressure is obtained by subtracting a phase distribution
without the pump pulse irradiation from a phase distribution
with the pump pulse irradiation. The phase change is
= 2dn=, where d is the sample thickness, n is
the refractive index change, and is the wavelength of the
probe pulse. Consequently, n can be calculated from .
Pressure is calculated with the following function from in
ref. 13:
P =
v
2
S

0
n
C
=
v
2
S

2dC
; (4)
where v
S
is the velocity of sound,
0
is the density of water,
and C is a constant given by
C =
(n
0
1)(n
0
2
1:4n
0
0:4)
(n
0
2
1:4n
0
0:4)
; (5)
where n
0
is the refractive index of water. In the experiments
described in the following section, n
0
was 1.34 for light with
a wavelength of 404.7 nm, v
S
was 1500 m/s, and
0
was
1.00 g/cm
3
.
3. Results and Discussion
Figure 2 shows (a) a shadowgraph, (b) interference fringes,
and (c) phase changes when t = 1:0 ns. It is known that the
plasma emission occurs accompanying the plasma gener-
ation. The intensity of the plasma emission, however, was
negligibly weak in comparison with the intensity of the
probe pulse in our experiment. In the shadowgraph shown in
Fig. 2(a), the circular pattern was formed by the diraction
at the cavitation bubble, which had large dierences of the
refractive index relative to its surroundings. In Fig. 2(c), the
phase changes, with a dark thick circular shape, are the
propagating shock waves. Because the shock pressure
increased the refractive index, the phase change induced
by the shock wave has a negative value. The phase change
at the center should show the phase change caused by the
plasma and cavitation bubble. The plasma and cavitation
bubble reduce the refractive index
8,11)
and the phase change
is positive. However, in our experiment, the phase change at
the center was negative. This discrepancy may be a result of
the diraction of the probe pulse by the plasma or cavitation
bubble. To observe the time evolutions of the plasma and
cavitation bubble, some improvement in the experimental
setup is required.
When the temporal delay between two pump pulses was
smaller than the pulse duration, the pulse energies of the two
pulses were disturbed. Figure 3 shows the phase change
distributions of breakdowns induced by two temporally
overlapping pulses. The contrast of these gures was
enhanced to increase visibility. Although the experimental
conditions for the four images were the same, the phase
changes of the shock waves at the upper and lower
breakdowns were dierent every time. Figure 3(a) shows
two equally generated breakdowns. Figures 3(b) and 3(c)
show cases where either the upper or lower breakdown was
stronger. The same tendency was observed in the shadow-
graph images. The depths of the outlines of the shock wave
and plasma bubble were also dierent every time. This
uctuation in pulse energy was a result of the interference
of the optical elds of the two pulses. Because the
femtosecond-laser-induced breakdown is a non linear
process, a small disturbance in the intensities induced by
the optical interference at the focal plane produced a strong
uctuation of the breakdowns. When the disturbed pulse
energy at the focus was less than the threshold energy, there
was no breakdown at the focus, as shown in the lower part
of Fig. 3(d). To avoid the uctuation, the arrival time of
the two pulses must be separated by more than the duration
of the pump pulse. In later experiments, one of the pump
pulses was delayed by more than 133 fs by moving the right-
angled prism. On the other hand, the uctuation originating
from a uctuation of the optical path dierence between the
pump pulses divided by a beam splitter. Therefore, there is
little uctuation in the parallel processing, which uses a
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 2. Shock waves from breakdowns induced at two points; (a)
shadowgraph, (b) interference fringes, and (c) analyzed phase
change. Scale bar shows 5 mm. t 1:0 ns.
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Fig. 3. Phase change distributions produced by two temporally
overlapping breakdowns with the same pulse energy. Scale bar
shows 5mm. t 1:0 ns.
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 48 (2009) 09LD04 A. Takita and Y. Hayasaki
09LD04-2 # 2009 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
collinear-type beam splitter such as a hologram because the
optical path dierences among the divided pulses are xed
against the mechanical vibration.
Figure 4 shows the phase change distributions of the two
breakdowns. The pulse energies of the two pulses were 70
and 60 nJ. The threshold energy for breakdown was 50 nJ.
When t was between 10 and 250 ps, the contrast of
the phase images was enhanced. The time when certain
discernable changes appeared in the phase distribution was
dened as t = 0 ps. At t = 0 ps, two circular regions
appeared. These were plasma bubbles. The separation of the
two breakdowns was 3 mm. Beginning from about 60 ps, the
phase change of the shock wave appeared and became more
intense as the central plasma expanded. Figure 5 shows
phase change versus delay time at a point 0.7 mm away from
the center of one of the breakdowns. Within 300 ps, the
phase change increased with the expansion of the central
plasma, as predicted in ref. 3.
When the delay time was over 250 ps, the two shock
waves overlapped, enhancing the phase change in the
overlapping region. Figure 6 shows the phase change prole
on the dashed line in Fig. 4 at t = 350 ps. The respective
phase changes of two single shock waves, two center
bubbles, and overlapping shock waves are indicated as the
ve local minimums. The phase changes at the two single
shock waves and overlapping shock waves were 0:31,
0:20, and 0:53rad, respectively. The pressures were
4:9 10
7
, 3:1 10
7
, and 8:3 10
7
Pa, respectively. The
pressure induced by the overlapping shock waves was
approximately the sum of the pressures of the two single
shock waves. This superposition of shock waves indicates
the possibility of synthesizing shock waves by inducing
multiple breakdowns. A shock wave usually propagates
radially with its pressure reducing in inverse proportion to
the square of the distance from the origin. Therefore,
breakdown must be induced with high energy to obtain
suciently high pressure. However, a breakdown with a
high energy generates a large cavitation bubble in water. In
some applications, such as those involving biological tissue,
a cavitation bubble is undesired because it damages the
surrounding tissue. The shock wave synthesis mentioned
above would enable us to enhance the shock wave pressure
at a distant location without increasing the damage caused
by a cavitation bubble.
4. Conclusions
Time evolutions of phase changes generated by two laser-
induced breakdowns and the subsequent shock waves were
measured by time-resolved interference microscopy. When
the two pump pulses were temporally overlapped, the pulse
energies at each focal spot uctuated owing to the optical
interference of the two pulses. The uctuation could be
avoided by delaying one pulse by a time longer than the
pulse duration or by the use of a collinear-type beam splitter.
When the two shock waves overlapped, the phase shift at the
overlapping point was the sum of the phase shifts of the
individual shock waves. The pressure of the overlapping
shock wave was also the sum of the pressures of the two
shock waves. This result shows the possibility of shock wave
-10 ps 0 ps 10 ps 50 ps
60 ps 70 ps 100 ps 250 ps
350 ps 500 ps 700 ps 900 ps
Fig. 4. Phase change distributions produced by two breakdowns in
water for various time delays. Scale bar shows 5 mm. The delay time is
shown under each image.
0 100 200 300 400 500
-0.5
-0.4
-0.3
-0.2
-0.1
0.0
0.1
Time (ps)
P
h
a
s
e

s
h
i
f
t

(

r
a
d
)
Fig. 5. Phase changes caused by a single shock wave at a point
0.7 mm from the center of breakdown.
0 5 10 15 20
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0.0
Position (m)
P
h
a
s
e

s
h
i
f
t

(

r
a
d
)
Shockwave
Shockwave
Bubble
Bubble
Overlapping shockwave
Fig. 6. Phase profiles of two shock waves and cavitation bubbles.
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 48 (2009) 09LD04 A. Takita and Y. Hayasaki
09LD04-3 # 2009 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
synthesis by generating multiple optical breakdowns. To
more fully understand the phenomena involved in multiple
laser-induced breakdowns, we must investigate two or more
breakdowns under various irradiation conditions and with
varying temporal and spatial separations of the pulses.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by The Murata Science Founda-
tion, The Asahi Glass Foundation, The Amada Foundation
for Metal Work Technology, and a Grant-in-Aid for
Scientic Research (B) from the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
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